We know that one day we will "celebrate" tisha b'av.  What exactly will we celebrate?  I think the standard pshat is that we will celebrate because we will have the beis hamikdash back.  However, rebuilding the beis hamikdash is not what happened on tisha b'av.  The destruction of the beis hamikdash happened. 

I once heard a much deeper pshat.  We will celebrate the destruction of the beis hamikdash.  Now, we mourn the destruction, but once we understand that it was for our good, we will literally celebrate that event.

What we see now as terrible destruction, we will one day understand to be part of our tikkun.

Have a meaningful fast!

I saw a very nice vort this week (vaeschanan) again from the aznayim latorah.

Why do we cover our eyes when we say kriyas shema?  The most common answer I have seen is to help our concentration.  The aznayim latorah has a different pshat.  He says that when we look into the world, we don't perceive yichud hashem.  We see tzaddik v'ra lo.  Rasha v'tov lo.  We cover our eyes to show that we disregard what our eyes see, and declare with emunah Hashem Echad!

how true!

thanks for sharing that

gibbor120 wrote on 05 Aug 2011 20:17:


amazing!
btw i think the celebration will be about the fact that moshiach was born on tb

Ok, it's a slow posting day, so i guess I will have to do the posting.  Here's one for Sukkos.  Sukkos? We haven't even hit Rosh Chodesh Elul yet?  Oh well, I thought of it now, so here goes.  If you like it, save the link for succos time.

The medrash (yalkut shemoni - emor) says that the reason we go out into succos is in case we were sentanced to galus on the yemei hadin.  Therefore we go out into succos to be mekayem the gezar din and not have to suffer real galus.  It sounds nice, but how does it work?  How can living in a hut for a week releive us of the gezeirah of galus?

The question we need to ask is "what is the point of galus"?  The point of galus is remove the source of our chatoim.  The main source is ga'avah.  Going into galus knocks us down a notch (from a truck to a tricycle if you will ).  By sitting in a succah, and living with emuna.  By being Hashem centered instead of self-centered, we are able to achieve that humility, and therefore we don't NEED galus any more.

We can see this from another galus.  Galus Mitzrayim. (sorry - from Succos to Pesach)  When did the geulah come?  When the yidden were so broken that they saw no way out.  When their egos were flat like matzah - no pride.  When they saw they had no way out, no one to rely on other than Hashem - that is the moment of geulah.

This is also the moment of our geulah.  When we humble ourselves.  When we see that all our efforts are futile.  The only one that can help us is Hashem.  We all know how humbling it is to admit our failures especially in this area.  (Even in Mitzrayim, they were faithful.)  I think someone said on this forum, we can either humble ourselves or suffer humiliation.  Either way - the geulah will come.  From the look of things... the geulah is right around the corner!

There is a beutiful peice from the ksav sofer at the beginning of ki seitzei.  I will try to paraphrase.  "ki seitzie lamilchama al oyvecha, unsano hashem elokecha biyadecha..."  When you go out to war with your enemy (the Y"H), THEN hashem will help you.  He brings the mishna of im aiyn ani li mi li.  If I don't do it and just rely on hashem - I will not succeed.  If I am for myself, but do not rely on hashem -  I will not succeed.  Only when I try my hardest AND rely on hashem at the same time -  then I will suceed. The mishna ends "im lo achshav aymasei" - don't put it off until you are old and your Y"H is diminished. DO IT NOW!

He continues, why does the pasuk start in lashon rabim "oyvecha" - your enemies, and end bilashon yachid- "unsano" - he will deliver him. He answers, the way to wage a war against your enemies is to capture the general (him).  Once you capture the general, everyone else will run.  So too, we have to capture the general of all taivos - the taiva for arayos.  If we can do that, all the other taivos will be easy to conquer.

See it inside, I am not doing it justice.

HAVE A GREAT SHABBOS!

great vort, thanks for sharing!

the 5 inuyim are not 5 afflictions as is commonly translated.  inuyim come from the word ani, a poor person.  A poor person is not afflicted, he is deprived.  On Y"K we deprive our physical bodies of 5 things.

In the zechus of depriving our physical bodies of pleasure, may we be forgiven for indulging in forbidden pleasures.

Gmar chasima tova

When we sit in the sukkah, we sit under the schach which protects us from the sun.  What is the symolism?  The sun represents gashmiyus. 

[One place we see this is from the fact that hasatan has the gematria of 364.  One less than the number of days in the year - 365.  The satan has power on all days of the year except one, yom kippur.  On that day he has no power.  The problem is [i]our[/i] year is lunar and does not have 365 days in it.  The answer is that the power of the satan is the power of gashmiyus.  So we use the calendar based on the sun to describe him.]

The schach comes from "psoles goren vayakev" the leftover stuff.  The stuff that isn't worth anything.  That represents anavah.  What protects us from the gashmiyus? Anavah. 

What is the result? SIMCHA of course! Zman simchaseinu!

To put it into GYE terms.  What protects us from our self centeredness (which is the fuel of our addiction) - anavah or "the heck with me, what can I do for you".  This brings us to the ultimate simcha.  LIVING life, not for ME, but living humbly with G-d.

Maybe I can add that one shouldn't put on so much schach that he cannot see the stars.  A person can't be so humble that he can't see the stars.  He has to still have that ability to strive, to "reach for the stars" so to speak (for you OM).

HAVE A CHAG SAMAYACH!

One more thing.  On Hoshana Rabbah, what do we come to daven with?  The aravah.  Why the lowly aravah which symbolizes the jew with no torah and no mitzvos?  Why not the saintly esrog?  We come to Hashem, not with gaavah, but with anavah, represented by the aravah.  We say, we have nothing, not torah, not mitzvos.  The aravah represents lips, which is the power of tefillah.  The power of our tefillah is dependant on coming to Hashem with humility.

Double-header!

beautiful!
i especially like the arava/hoshana raba/tefila idea
(when's the book-signing?)

thank you for sharing

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 11 Oct 2011 15:49:

signing - R"H. Sealing - Y"K. Sheluchim...

gibbor120 wrote on 11 Oct 2011 14:24:

holy holy holy....

I posted this b4, but it's really for sukkos and fits with the other 2 i posted.

gibbor120 wrote on 26 Aug 2011 20:06:

gibbor120 wrote on 11 Oct 2011 14:20:

once heard (i think from R' Akiva Tatz) that the solar year is called Shana, related to shaina, sleep, and yashan, old, and shinun, repetition. As opposed to the lunar calendar which is comprised of months, chodesh, new, a constant renewal. Yidden are associated with the chidush of the moon, hachodesh hazeh lachem.

thanks for that great vort