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The Short Vort- -““Happy Days Are Here Again…”” (7/26/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Monday the 15th of Menachem Av 5770, July 26, 2010
Tu B’av
“Happy Days Are Here Again…”
In 1929, Yankel Yellen, a Jewish songwriter wrote the lyrics to the song, “Happy Days Are Here Again…”
Here is the famous refrain from the song which FDR adopted as his campaign song in his successful 1932 presidential bid.
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Today on the 15th of Menachem Av, -Tu B’av- these words can be sung again.
Today –as the Gemara at the end of Massechta Taanis informs us- is one of the two happiest days on the Jewish calendar.
Although I was privileged to attend yeshiva beginning in the first grade, since Tu B’av falls in the summer, my knowledge of the significance of the day was limited at best.
I remember when I was seventeen years old in summer camp; I approached one of the camp’s rabbis and asked him what is so happy about the day of Tu B’av?
Unfortunately, instead of sitting me down with a Gemara- Massechta Taanis and learning with me the relevant portions of the Gemara, he began to blush and said, “We really do not celebrate that day anymore. Don’t ask anymore questions”.
By his somewhat roundabout answer I knew there was a mystique to the day which meant that of course, I would ask more questions!
What happened on Tu B’av?
There were no holy days as happy for the Jews as Tu B’av and Yom Kippur
§ While the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years, female orphans without brothers could only marry within their tribe, to prevent their father’s inherited land in the Eretz Yisroel from passing on to other tribes. On the fifteenth of Av of the fortieth year, this ban was lifted.
§ That same year, on the fifteenth of Av the last of the generation of the ‘spies’ which had been forbidden to enter the Promised Land, died out.
§ Shevet Binyamin was allowed to intermarry with the other tribes on the fifteenth of Av after the incident of the Pilegesh B’Givaah (see sefer Shoftim chapters 19-21).
§ Cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Beis HaMikdash was completed for the year on the fifteenth of Av.
§ On the fifteenth of Av the nights, traditionally the ideal time for learning Torah are lengthened again after the summer season permitting more study.
§ On the fifteenth of Av the Roman occupiers permitted burial of the victims of the massacre at Beitar Miraculously, the bodies had not decomposed, despite exposure to the elements.
However, if the day is filled with these happy events, why was my rabbi blushing?
There is one more piece to the Gemara:
"There were no holidays as joyous for the Jewish People as the Fifteenth of Av and Yom HaKippurim, for on those days, the daughters of Yerushalayim would go out dressed in borrowed white clothing.
"And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards located on the outskirts of the city. And everyone who didn’t have a wife would go there."
"And what would they say?"
"Young man, lift up your eyes and choose wisely. Do not look only at physical beauty - look rather at the family –
’For charm is false, and beauty is vanity. A G-d - fearing woman is the one to be praised...’ ("Mishlei"/Proverbs 31:30)"
As I read the Gemara I realized very quickly why my rabbi blushed.
Although I obviously cannot advocate that today: "The daughters of Jerusalem (or Passaic) go out and dance in the vineyards" – (although it might help alleviate ‘the shidduch crises) - nevertheless, why did they do this today on Tu B’av?
We still must understand why it is such a happy day that it was chosen for a day to make shidduchim?
The reason is because it was a day in which Hashem showed us that all was not lost.
Today we were taught and shown: There is life after Tisha B’av!
Let us look at the event of Beitar.
Although, Beitar was one great calamity, -the fall of Beitar is one of the reasons we fast on Tisha B’av- nevertheless, the realization that Hashem has not forsaken His people- which was manifested in the bodies being buried and their not decomposing- caused the people to be happy.
What is true happiness?
Perhaps the only way to know what true happiness is is to first figure out what is true sadness.
The Torah tells us that one of the worst punishments is Kares. However, the Torah never informs us what exactly Kares is!
The commentators tell us that Kares is being ‘cut off’. In simple terms this means being cut off from Hashem and His Presence.
If that is one of the most horrific of ‘places’ to be in, then we must realize that being ‘in’ His presence, is one of the most happy places a person can be in.
That is Tu B’av- the realization that although sometimes we may do things to anger Hashem and to cause His to punish us- nevertheless, He never ‘cuts’ us off from Him.
As the burial of Beitar proves, He has not abandoned us!
He has never cut us off.
This is also why shidduchim were done on Tu B’av.
For that is the essence of any good marriage.
It may occur that a husband and wife have their differences; however, they are never ‘cut off’ from one another.
They have their ‘moments’; however, the love and commitment remains permanent.
Ultimately, this is the message of Tu B’av.
Hashem may be sometimes ‘distant’ from us, however, He never ‘cuts’ Himself from us!
Today although we are still less than one week passed Tisha B’av, we say “Happy days are here again”- or at least they are potentially on the way- for Hashem has not abandoned us!
Enjoy Tu B’av and I hope all those that need a shidduch find that special person today!