Midsummer Happiness

Part I. The Torah Calendar

Midsummer Celebration

It’s our good fortune that we’re sitting here tonight on Chamisha Asar B’Av because this day is a subject I wanted to speak about with you for a long time already. Tonight we’re celebrating a midsummer’s night—the fifteenth of Av is exactly in the middle of the summer—and so, we should try to understand what that means to us.

Now, everybody knows what the Mishna in Mesichta Taanis (4:8) says about today: יםƒר וּיפƒּכַה םֹיו¿כּו בָ‡¿ּב רָׂ ָ̆ﬠ הָּׁ̆ƒמֲחַּכ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ̆ƒי¿ל יםƒבֹטו יםƒמָיּיוָה ‡ֹל – The Jewish nation did not have such joyous days as the fifteenth day of Av and also Yom Kippur. And the Gemara tells us there about happy celebrations that took place on those days, celebrations that were intended to accentuate the happiness of the day.

Midsummer Mystery

Now, Yom Kippur, we understand on our own why it’s the happiest day of the year. ם∆יכ≈לֲﬠ ר≈ּפַכ¿י ה∆ּזַה םֹויַב יƒּכ – On this day atonement will be made for you, ם∆יכ≈ ̇‡ֹּטַח לֹּכƒמ ם∆כ¿ ̇∆‡ ר≈הַט¿ל – to purify you from all your sins (Vayikra 16:30). It’s a promise, after a long period of teshuva, Elul and Aseres Yemei Teshuva, finally רוֲהַט¿ּ ̇ ם≈ַּׁ̆ה י≈נ¿פƒל – you become clean in the presence of Hashem (ibid.). When Yom Kippur is over, you’re not the same man as you were erev Yom Kippur. You have changed fundamentally and you’re reconciled once again with your Father in Heaven. And so absolutely, Yom Kippur is the happiest day.

But the 15th of Av is not so simple to understand. The Gemara (Taanis 30a) offers various reasons for why it’s considered a joyous day but tonight we’re going to understand something deeper—what makes it so joyous that it stands alongside Yom Kippur as one of the happiest days of the year. Of course, we won’t be able to explain everything, but b’ezras Hashem we’ll uncover a perspective that shows how Chamisha Asar B’Av is not only a celebration on its own but also the starting point of a journey that leads us toward the joy and greatness—the teshuva v’kapparah—of Yom Kippur.

The Torah Calendar

Now, if we’re going to understand the role that Chamisha Asar B’Av plays in our lives we have to note the Jewish calendar is not like the gentile calendar; it’s not random days that incidentally fall out at various times. We’re going to see now that our calendar days—the physical aspects of our calendar—fit hand in glove with all of the great Torah ideals.

Everyone knows that on our calendar we have three great festivals, the Shalosh Regalim, and each one commemorates a very important ideal. There’s a Chag Hamatzos and we call it Zeman Cheiruseinu, the Time of our Freedom; we’re celebrating when Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. Then there’s Chag HaShavuos which we call Zeman Matan Toraseinu, when the Torah was given. And there’s a Chag HaSukkos, Zman Simchaseinu which commemorates the forty years we lived in the midbar, living in flimsy sukkos with nothing but the ananei kavod, the Glory of Hashem, protecting us. It’s three moadim on the calendar for three great Torah ideals.

But as much as these important ideals are personified by these occasions, yet we find a queer thing. When the Torah speaks about these days, it goes out of its way to mention the agricultural aspects of these holidays; how each one is connected with the crops—the ripening and reaping and gathering of the harvest from the fields.

Off Focus Calendar

Pesach the Torah says, is Chag Ha'Aviv, the celebration of the wheat beginning to ripen in the fields. The new wheat?! Isn't that a letdown? Here we're talking about the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim, when Hashem demonstrated to the world that He's in control of nature and He chose the Am Yisroel forever as His eternal people and all of a sudden the Torah says it’s a farm festival, a festival rejoicing with grain.

Shavous, same thing. We consider it Zeman Matan Toraseinu, the festival celebrating how Hashem gave us the most valuable gift ever given to man, the festival that made us the Torah nation that will live forever, and along comes the possuk and it tells us that Shavous is a festival of bikurim, ripe fruits, ripe produce. It’s the conclusion of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat season.

And Sukkos, we know is the great celebration of our survival in the wilderness where Hashem protected us even though we didn't have any secure habitations. We lived in flimsy tabernacles, the least protected of any time in our history, and still we had the most security because Hashem was protecting us with His ananei kavod. Now, that’s something to remember and commemorate! But the Torah goes out of its way to point out that it is Chag Ha'asif, the time of year when you gather in the crops, the happiness of the harvest season.

The Truth is in the Siddur

All that harvest talk is quite jarring to our minds; a contradiction to what we would have thought. And actually, in our tefillos we don’t speak about the crops; we have spiritual names for the Shalosh Regalim in the davening because we understand that’s the focus of the yomtov. It’s the ideals, the Torah principles, that matter to us and so we call the yomim tovim by their other names: Zeman Cheiruseinu, Zeman Matan Toraseinu and Zeman Simchaseinu. And yet it’s a remarkable fact that the Torah connects these yomim tovim with physical, gashmiyusdige, occasions.

Now of course for apikorsim this was an opportunity. The apikorsim said, “Oh, it’s because once upon a time it was nothing but harvest festivals. When Israel was a young people—they were a tribe of farmers—that’s all it was. Only later, when they matured into a nation so they attached new significances to the festivals, holy significances.”

But that's only because they didn't understand the purpose of the Torah; they didn’t understand the connection between the physical world and the Torah. Yes, it’s true that the ruchniyusdige ideals, that’s what’s important; but the gashmiyusdige world was created according to those ideals—the seasons were created for and according to the Torah.

The Way to a Man’s Heart

And because the best and most effective way for the Torah to teach us the great principles of Yetzias Mitzrayim and Matan Torah and Sukkos, is when you're grateful for produce, when you're happy with the prospect that for the year to come you're going to have plenty to eat, that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu synchronized these agricultural occasions with the Torah. Because in the olden times, everybody lived from agriculture and when you see that your fields are yielding, your heart is full of gratitude and happiness. And when you’re happy, that's when you're most receptive to the great ideals.

That's a very important teaching you’re hearing now: The original Torah concept of coming closer to Hashem, of teshuva and kirvas Elokim, was not by means of chastisement, tribulations or sufferings. That wasn’t Hashem’s plan. You know, in Gan Eden Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have created fast days for Adam HaRishon. He could have created plants that had thorns on them, and foods that needed to be cooked. He could have made it so that it required a lot of work before he could find something to eat. But no, it wasn’t like that. It was fruits galore! Tasty, ready-made food! And in abundance! In Gan Eden there were nothing but good times—that’s how the world began because Hashem’s plan was that man should be happy and recognize Hashem through that joy.

Joyful Ruchniyus

That was the original plan and that plan is still valid today. That's why when you make a siyum, when you complete a sefer of the Torah you eat. Why should you eat? What's eating got to do with studying Torah? The answer is, when you're eating it's easier to appreciate the spiritual things.

Shabbos is the same; why do you have to eat challos on Shabbos and drink wine? We should sit down at an empty table, with a white tablecloth if you wish, and the lady of the house should serve Chumashim and that's all—we should sit at the table and study about the creation of the world. The answer is, when you're eating challah and fish and chicken and other good things, it's easier to be grateful and to be inspired to noble thoughts.

And that's because our Torah, is Toras chaim, the Torah of living. Our Torah is tied up with normal life according to the great expert of human nature—that's Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We don’t say that a man should be a celibate priest, and a woman, a nun in a monastery. We don’t say that you should fast and wear sackcloth in order to serve Hashem. Because if you divorce idealism from happy living, then it means you're forcing it into an unnatural course which cannot succeed.

Three Happy Seasons

And so when the spring comes, when it’s Chodesh Ha’Aviv and the world begins to blossom around you, all that happiness is meant to be a dynamo; to put you in the right mood, the right frame of mind. It bestirs you to feel gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for Yetzias Mitzrayim—the blossoming of our nation—which took place then.

And then when the first fruits begin to ripen, Shavuos time, He intended it should stir up a happiness, a gratitude. ‘Oh! The bikurim! The first grapes are ready to eat! The first dates and first pomegranates are ready!” And it’s reaping time too. Everybody’s happy when the time comes to reap and he sees big bundles of grain, sheaves of grain, standing on the field. That’s an excellent time for remembering Matan Torah and Har Sinai. How does that fit in? The answer is that when you're munching a tasty ripe fruit it's much easier to appreciate the giving of the Torah.

And then at the end of the summer comes the happiness of Sukkos, Chag Ha’osif. Everybody’s happy in the time of the osif when you take in your wheat and your barley and your rye and your spelt and your oats and you take in all the wine that you pressed and you put it in your wine cellars. Everybody’s in a good mood when you take in the olives and you press out and you have plenty of olive oil for all year around. When you have your harvest secure in your bins, and your storehouses are bursting with wheat, with barley, with rye, and you have big barrels full of wine and you have oil and you’re all set now for the winter, for a long winter of many good meals, your heart is full of gratitude and now it's easier to celebrate the ideals of the Yom Tov.

And that’s why ה׳ ןֹו„ָ‡ָה י≈נ¿ּפ ̇∆‡ָך¿רּכו¿ז לָּכ ה∆‡ָר≈י הָנַָּּׁ̆ב יםƒמָﬠ¿ּפ ֹׁ̆úָׁ̆ – these three times of the year, that’s when we’re obligated to go up to Yerushalayim to our Master, Hashem (Shemos 23:17). Because during the good times, that’s the best time to remind yourself about Hashem. That’s the point of the good times! Not just to enjoy the harvest and to eat and be merry; it’s to enjoy the harvest and to eat and be merry in order to remember the One Who is giving it to you.

Happy Teshuva

When you’re in a happy mood that’s the best time to rededicate yourself to avodas Hashem. That’s the time to say, “Hashem, it’s all Yours and we are grateful to You for everything. Not only for the happiness of the land but now that we’re in the mood, we’re thanking You for taking us out of Mitzrayim and making us Your people! You gave us the Torah on Har Sinai and lifted us up forever! You protected us in the sukkos and showed us that it will be that way forever!”

You go up to Yerushalayim with all these thoughts in your head and that's the most important thing you bring with you to Yeushalayim—you brought also your wife and children and korbanos and maaser sheini, but most important was your mind. And your mind was raised up to its heights because of the happiness of the calendar.

And we shouldn’t look down at that. Just the opposite! Because that is Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s intention. He looked into the Torah and saw that the Am Yisroel is going to celebrate these great Torah ideals of the yomim tovim, and He created the world around that. That’s the the meaning of the well-known maxim quoted from the Zohar, ‡ָמ¿לָﬠ ‡ָרָבּו ‡ָ ̇י¿יַרֹו‡¿ּב לָּכַּ̇¿יסƒ‡ – Hashem looked into the Torah and He created the world (Terumah, 61).

It’s a mysterious concept but in its most simple sense it means that the world was created according to a set of blueprints—and it was a blueprint of ideals.

Now, the idea that all physical creation functions according to a set of intricate plans is easy to understand because we see on our own that even the most simple living cell contains designs more complex than are necessary to erect a skyscraper building. And that’s not an exaggeration—the details of reproduction and growth that are achieved by every cell are so immensely cunning and have so many ramifications and variegated results, that it would all be impossible without a built-in program; a genetic blueprint embedded in the chromosomes of the original cell. And that’s only the cell! Everything in creation demonstrates such intricate planning that it leaves no doubt that the entire physical creation follows a detailed blueprint of planning and design that is far beyond human comprehension.

A Mystical Blueprint

But that’s not what we’re talking about here. ‡ָ ̇י¿יַרֹו‡¿ּב לָּכַּ̇¿יסƒ‡ – Hashem looked into the Torah, means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu looked into a blueprint much more sublime than that; it’s talking about a blueprint of Torah idealism. Not only does creation conform to a blueprint in its physical functioning but even more fundamentally it conforms to a blueprint of ideals.

That’s the secret of ‘Hakadosh Baruch Hu looking into the Torah and creating the world’: Hakadosh Baruch Hu looked into the ideals and principles contained in the Torah and He designed the physical world according to that. And included in that statement—it’s not the whole thing but its included—is our calendar. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made it so that the agricultural celebrations should be synchronized to the Torah; that the yomim tovim should all revolve around gashmiyus’dige happiness in order that the Torah principles will be expressed and lived by means of good times.

Part II. The Summer Calendar

A Nechama...

And so we come now to today, to the 15th of Av. You know, when the Gemara tells us of all the happy occasions that took place on the fifteenth day of Av, at first glance it’s a big contradiction to our concept of Av – הָח¿מƒׂ̆¿ּב יןƒטֲﬠַמ¿מ בָ‡ סַנ¿כƒּנ∆ׁ̆ƒמ.

When we bentch Rosh Chodesh Av, we say menachem Av; we’re asking it should be a consolation. Boys that are born in the month of Av are frequently called Menachem, and the girls are called Nechama. Unless you have a father-in-law who insists that his father should be honored or a mother-in-law who insists her family should be honored, but otherwise we give a name of consolation. That was an old tradition among the Jewish nation; a boy is Menachem and a girl, Nechama. And so we think of Av as a sad month, a month that needs to look for consolations.

Now, it’s not wrong but the truth is that it’s not right either because we see that right in the middle of the month is the happiest day of the year. The Nine Days? Yes, it's a time of mourning. Tisha B’Av? Yes we sat on the ground and we wept for the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and ב∆רָח∆ּבּלו¿פָנ יƒּכ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ̆ƒי ̇י≈ּב לַﬠ¿ו ה׳ םַﬠ לַﬠ – for the nation of Hashem and the House of Israel who fell by the sword (Shmuel II, 1:12).

...And a Happiness

But that's not the function of the summer months—if you want to know what the summer is all about, so you look at Chamisha Asar B’Av. And that day tells us that more than anything else, the summer is a time of happiness. Because sadness, even if it’s sadness of mitzvah, like aveilus for the Churban, that’s not the way to succeed. You need it of course; it’s one ingredient—it’s necessary to add a little bit of salt sometimes, maybe a little bit of pepper too, but it can’t be all salt and pepper. The majority of our fare has to be simcha. Happiness is the most important ingredient in life.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu wishes for us to succeed in this world and the way that we will be most successful is from happiness. Life is a concoction of very many ingredients but what’s most essential for a man to live successfully is the ingredient of םּׁ≈ַ̆הַּב יםƒ̃יּƒ„ַˆּחו¿מׂƒ̆ – All of you who want to be righteous, you must rejoice in Hashem (Tehillim 97:12). The great success of the ovdei Hashem is in the things that He gave them to enjoy! And the summertime is the best season for that.

Songs of Summer

All of nature is singing now. רַﬠָי י≈ˆֲﬠ לָּכּנו¿ּנַר¿י זָ‡ – Then, all the trees of the forest begin singing (Tehillim 96:12). ‘Then’ means l’asid lavo; they’ll sing more loudly but right now they’re singing too. The trees are loaded with foliage and fruit. There are leaves and shrubs everywhere. Flowers, various colors, wherever you look. Green grass is growing on all sides. Green, you have to know, is an especially soft color on the eyes, a pleasant color. The weather is nice and the fresh air is sweet. And so on all sides we’re surrounded by pleasantries, by summer delights.

The birds are also helping, doing their part too and chirping from the trees. You may not think about it, but the chirping of the birds causes a simcha in our hearts. The fact is that many poets, people who are wide awake, noted that the chirping of the birds in the trees is a contribution to the happiness of life. Now, I cannot tell you how big of a contribution it is because I have never been in a world without birds, but there’s no question, the summertime songs of the birds—their singing or chirping or whatever they’re doing— causes a certain joy in the hearts of men.

Summer Freebies

And the sun is a big happiness too. You’re getting bathed not only in golden light but it’s also a vitamin dispensary. Walk out in the street and the sun is showering vitamins on you free of charge. In the wintertime you don’t always get the vitamins you need from the sun—the angle of the sunlight, the cloud cover, other reasons—and sometimes you have to take extra vitamin pills. But in the summertime, you get all you want.

It’s also pouring down heat free of charge. The landlords are happy now because they don’t have to pay for oil in the summertime. No tenants are calling up in the middle of the night yelling at you, “The heat is off!” And there are no colds in the summer — unless you sit yourself down in front of the air cooler and make yourself sick. Otherwise you’re in the clear. There are less toothaches too. Most dentists have less business in the summertime because people don’t go to the dentists because of good sense; they go when there’s a toothache and in summertime toothaches are more rare. Arthritis sufferers, too, enjoy the summer sun—it bakes their old bones and makes them happy. And so summer is a time of joy for everyone.

Complainers Lose Out

Now, some people may not think so because they’re accustomed to griping all the time and complaining, “It’s too hot.” And they talk to each other about their sufferings and the heat wave and so on. But they’re missing the purpose, the happiness. You know, when your wife is baking a cake you don’t complain “Chanaleh, it’s too hot in here.” She can’t bake the cake in the refrigerator after all. Well, you can’t bake apples in the winter time either. Apples need heat to be baked on the trees and that’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing for you in summertime. At each heat wave, He causes nature to make another spurt and that’s why they’re baked already by the time you buy them.

Not only apples. All the fruit and vegetables; the grapes and the tomatoes and the peppers and the peaches and the cherries; He’s baking