What are the conditions that turn mourning into joy? Explore ideas connecting this week’s Torah portion and the dichotomous month of Av
The two portions we will read this coming Shabbat, Mattot-Masei, conclude the book of Bemidbar with a summary of the forty years of wanderings in the desert. Every year these verses are read in the midst of the three weeks between the seventeenth day of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, and this year it will be right before the beginning of the month of Av.
Interestingly, Av (or the “fifth month” as it is called in the Bible) is specifically mentioned in one of them. And so we read (Bemidbar 33:38):”Aharon the priest ascended Mount Hor at God’s command and died there, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.”
Although we already read about the death of Aharon HaCohen in Parashat Hukkat a few weeks ago, the date of his death is only mentioned here, and it turns out that it is Rosh Chodesh Av. By the way, this is the only time in the entire Torah that the fifth month is mentioned. Also, Aharon is the only person in the entire Torah whose death date is given to us!
Two questions arise from this verse: one, why does Aharon’s death day receive so much attention? And the second – why on this date?
Let’s start with Aaron: The Sages say that Aaron was a ‘lover of peace and a pursuer of peace’ (Mishna Tractate Avot 1:12), he knew how to resolve conflicts between a person and his friend and between man and wife. That is why at his death it is said: “And all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days” (Numbers 20:90), while with Moshe it says: “And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the desert of Moab for thirty days” (Deut. 34:8). Aharon was a leader connected to the people, while Moshe was more distant.
And what about the month of Av? We are used to think of it as a month of mourning and calamity.
משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה
When the month of Av begins, one decreases rejoicing, states the Mishna in tractate Ta’anit (4:6). During the first nine days of the month, mourning customs should be followed. Most people avoid holding happy events, some do not cut their hair and don’t wear new clothes, and some don’t eat meat on all these days. The reason is of course the destruction of the Temple, and it is worth noting that throughout Jewish history other disasters occurred during this period, for example the expulsion from Spain or the outbreak of the First World War.
But not all of Av is about mourning and disaster. Later on in the same Mishna, it says that “there were no good days for Israel as the fifteenth day of Av and Yom Kippur.” The prophet Zechariah said: “Thus said the Lord (ה’ צבאות) the fast of the fourth and the fast of the fifth …shall become times of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts to the house of Yehuda; but you must love truth and peace.” (Zechariah 8:19).
Here, in my opinion, the connection between the month of Av and the figure of Aaron is revealed: the love of truth and peace – this is the condition for turning mourning into joy. Truth and peace are two values that often conflict, but the one who knows how to combine both is the worthy leader, who could bring redemption.
May this month, and the painful days we are subjected to, be blessed and become for us, “times of joy and gladness.”
Shavua Tov from Schechter
Dr. Gila Vachman is a Lecturer in Midrash at The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and coordinates The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary’s Torah Lishmah program at Neve Schechter in Tel Aviv.
Dr. Gila Vachman received her BA (summa cum laude) in Talmud and Hebrew Literature, MA (summa cum laude) in Midrash and Aggadah, and her PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also a lecturer in Midrash and Aggadah at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Born on Kibbutz Yavne, Dr. Vachman is married, the mother of three children, and lives in Jerusalem.