A.
The Book of Deuteronomy consists primarily of Moshe’s final address to Israel, as they stood on the plains of Mo’av opposite the city of Jericho, poised for the invasion of the Holy Land. Much of our parasha is taken up with Moshe’s recapitulation of the path they had taken over the last forty years, both literally and figuratively, to arrive at this point.
ויהי כאשר תמו כל אנשי המלחמה למות מקרב העם: וידבר ד' אלי וגו' (“And it was that when all the men of war had finished dying from amongst the people. And Ha-Shem spoke to me....” II, 16-17). The “men of war,” the Talmud informs us, were the generation of the yotz’ei Mitzrayim, condemned to end their days in the desert and never enter the Promised Land, in the wake of their panic-stricken reaction to the negative report which had been brought back by the spies sent out by Moshe thirty-eight years before.
That report had been delivered on 9 Av 2449. Over all these years, the generation of adults who had witnessed G-d’s miraculous pounding into submission of the Egyptian super-power, the drowning of her army at Yam Suf, and the revelation at Sinai and attendant miracles in the desert had been dying off. Each Tish’â b’Av (the date in Hebrew), the date would be announced, and the bnei Yisra’él would dig their graves and lie down in them, lest they die in the course of the night. When morning came, those whose time had not yet come would arise from the graves and go on about their business.
In the year 2488, on Tish’â b’Av, the people had followed the same custom. Only, this year, nobody had died. They were surprised; had they erred in the date? So the next night, they did the same. Again, no-one has perished. And the next night, and the next night.... Finally, on 15 Av, as they beheld the full moon, they realised that the gzéra, the Divine decree, had been fulfilled, and no one else was destined to die in the desert. Wild with joy, they established 15 Av as a holiday, which the Talmud compares in greatness to Yom Kippur (תענית ל:, עיי' רש"י, רבנו חננאל, ותוספות שם בשם איכה רבתי ).
The gmara goes on to list other historical events associated with 15 Av, each a cause for rejoicing in its own right: On this day, young women whose fathers had died without sons and as a consequence had inherited their fathers’ estates, were allowed to marry young men from other tribes of Israel than their own (on completion of the conquest and distribution of the land; cf. Numbers XXVII, 1-11; the prohibition had been in effect for one generation., in order to keep all the land allotted to each tribe together). On this same date, later on, the ban which had been imposed by the rest of Israel on the tribe of Binyamin was lifted, and they were once again permitted to marry members of other tribes (cf. Judges XXI). And also on this day, King Hoshea ben Ela of the northern kingdom of Israel abolished the guards who had been stationed on the roads to prevent any of its subjects from making pilgrimage to Jerusalem since the separatist kingdom’s founding by Yerov’am ben Nevat (cf. I Kings XII, 25-33), once again permitting them.
B.
The holiday was overtaken by events, overshadowed by that other day in the month of Av which looms so large in Jewish, indeed, in world history, the Ninth.
Aside from the disastrous report of the m’ragglim with its resultant panic-stricken revolt and concomitant Divine decree, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed both times on this day (the first time by the Babylonians, the second by the Roman); the city of Beitar, last strongpoint of Shim’on bar Kochva in the final revolt against the Romans, was taken and its inhabitants slaughtered; simultaneously, the sacred ground of Jerusalem was ploughed and sown with salt by the Romans.
For these reasons, the mishna rules, משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה (“When the month of Av enters we minimise our rejoicing;” שם). The day’s inauspicious nature has continued down through the ages, and many other evil events have been associated with it (for instance, the First World War began on Tish’â b’Av).
The Yerushalmi, in discussing our passage, poses the question: מה יעשו גדולי הדור ואין הצבור נדון אלא אחר רובו, שכן מצינו שכל ל"ח שנים שהיו ישראל כמנודים לא הי' מדבר עם משה (“What do the great men of the generation do, since the public is judged according to its majority; for we find that the entire 38 years that Israel were, as it were, ostracized, [G-d] did not speak to Moshe....” ירושלמי תענית פ"ג ה"ד).
As the Qorban ha-Êida, ad loc., explains, the gmara does not wish to imply that G-d’s silence was absolute; rather, לא הי' מדבר עם משה ביחוד וחיבה, בלשון וידבר שהוא מורה על חוזק הדבור וחיבה יתירה (“He was not speaking with Moshe in private, affectionately, as suggested by the word ya-yedabbér which indicates animated speech and exceptional affection”).
This was, in short, Israel’s first experience with the phenomenon known as hestér panim.
C.
Hestér panim, literally “hiding of [G-d's] face,” is the term used by the Torah to describe the alienation from our Heavenly Father which results from failure to observe His commandments. The Torah gives us fair warning: Should we ignore the mitzvoth, G-d will be angry with us, ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא (“And I shall hide My face on that day....” Deuteronomy XXXI, 18).
G-d still runs His world, to be sure, but His beneficence in doing so is far less apparent. Rather than the warmth and affection evident in a close “I-Thou” relationship, we find ourselves relegated instead to the colder, more distant third person (compare, for instance, the pronouns used in Deuteronomy XI, 13-16 with the following verse, 17).
As a result of Moshe’s choice to send out the m’ragglim (cf. Numbers XIII, 2, Rashi ad loc.) and the bad reaction engendered by their report, Moshe and Israel were not cut off utterly; Divine guidance continued to be given, and mitzvoth were elucidated and clarified. What was missing was the intimacy and warmth; communication had become curt, cold, and impersonal.
Until that magical 9 Av 2488, when nobody died. On the subsequent 15 Av, when Israel were certain that the gzéra had been lifted, it was confirmed: וידבר ד' אלי, “And Ha-Shem spoke to me!” אלי הי' הדבור, exulted Moshe; the speech was to me!” The warmth and intimacy had returned to the Divine voice....
D.
The hey to dealing with the present state of hestér panim, I believe, can be discerned from what we have learnt of the interplay between 9 Av and 15 Av. Review the occasions which the Talmud associates with 15 Av, and you will note they were all acts of reconciliation, the ending of alienation of part of Israel from another.
Our present long and bitter exile began with the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. That destruction, the Talmud tells us, was the result of sin’ath chinnam, of “groundless hatred” between Jews (יומא ט:). It is time and long past time for the alienation to end, for the wearers of kippoth srugoth to grasp the hands of those of us who wear bekeshes, shtreimelach, and black hats; nor should those hands, when outstretched, be refused.
The name of the month of Av is derived from an Aramaic root which means something like “to bear fruit,” especially young, tender shoots (cf., e.g., Daniel IV, 9, as well as numerous places in the Talmud, especially the Yerushalmi; see also Job VIII, 12 and Song of Songs VI, 11 for rare instances of its use in Hebrew). The év, the young, tender fruit of Av, is the immediately following month of Elul.
Elul, the Séfer ha-Toda’â reminds us, is formed of the initials of אני לדודי ודודי לי, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song of Songs V, 6). In the wake of the alienation in Av, G-d makes Himself especially available to reconciliation with Israel during Elul, if we will only take the invitation and make the requisite effort.
May Tish’â b’Av this year pass uneventfully, without adding to the chain of sorrows, and may the healing begin immediately thereafter.
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