The Shabbat following Tish'a b'Av is SHABBAT NACHAMU. Sources say that one should be a little more joyous on this Shabbat than the other Shabbatot of the year.

It is fitting to plan to make this Shabbat a bit more special, in your own particular way. Perhaps sparkling wine for Kiddush, instead of the no-bubble variety. Or a favorite dish. Or a special dessert. More Z'mirot at the table than usual. Even the other songs in the back of the bencher. Special guests. A pleasant walk on Friday night and/or Shabbat afternoon. Extra Torah learning with the whole family. Use your imagination (and/or borrow some of these suggestions).

Shabbat Nachamu is a wonderful "snap out of it" for the mood we can develop during the Three Weeks and/or the Nine Days. But it doesn't mean to forget the mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. It means keep things in perspective and to lead to action that will bring about positive changes to our lives, as individuals and as part of Klal Yisrael, that will hasten the Geula.

Remember that there are three weeks of commemoration of tragedies and seven Shabbatot of consolation. Excessive mourning can be destructive. Just as we needed to get into the mourning period for the Beit HaMikdash, we also need a good way to be drawn out. Shabbat Nachamu can do the job well, if we let it.

Numerically speaking...

Chazal teach us that he who keeps the Shabbat it is as if he keeps the whole Torah, and he who violates the Shabbat it is as if he denies all of the Torah. In the presentation of the Shabbat in the Yitro-version of the Aseret HaDibrot, a direct link between the command to keep Shabbat and belief in G-d's creation of the world is made. The command to keep the Shabbat appears twelve times in the Torah. This concept equating Shabbat to the whole Torah is demonstrated with a GM (g'matriya match) between one of the Shabbat p'sukim and a pasuk in this week's sedra. Sh'mot 31:15 states: Six days you shall work and on the seventh it is Shabbat Shabbaton, holy to G-d, he who does melacha on Shabbat shall die. D'varim 6:1 says: And these are the mitzvot, the chukim and the mishpatim that G-d commanded you to teach you and to do them in the Land you are soon to enter in order to possess. These p'sukim are quite long, and each weighs in with a G'matriya of 6155. But they match, as do Shabbat and all of the Torah.

Remember that these g'matriyas don't prove anything, but they are "fun". They help point to an idea and they make things interesting.

Here's another...

The first part of Sh'ma is contained in this week's sedra. D'varim 6:4 - Sh'ma Yisrael HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad. The g'matriya of these six words is 1118. This is also the G'matriya of one of the most often quoted p'sukim in davening, if not THE most. T'hilim 20:10 - HaShem Hoshi'a HaMelech Yaaneinu V'yom Koreinu, G-d will save us, the King will answer us on the day we call. One gets the feeling from this GM that our firm statement of belief as expressed by the former pasuk merits us the special relationship with G-d as expressed in the latter pasuk, numerically speaking, of course.

This G'matriya of Sh'ma shows up in another interesting context - the names of the five fingers. BOHEN (thumb) = 57, ETZBA (pointer) = 163, AMA (middle finger, from its out stretched tip until the elbow is the measure of an Ama) = 46, K'MITZA (ring finger, named for the portion of a flour-oil offering that the kohen scooped out with his hand and put on the Mizbei' ach) = 245, ZERET (pinky, also the term for a SPAN, the length from thumb to pinky of an outstretched palm) = 607. Total: 1118. And the connection between the fingers of the hand and Sh'ma? We cover our eyes with our hand for Sh'ma. S'faradim use their fingertips: thumb & pinky in the corner of the closed eyes and the other three on the forehead forming a SHIN. See, I have taught you... says Moshe Rabeinu. From here we learn, says the Gemara, that just as Moshe was not paid for teaching us, so too should we also not be paid for teaching Torah.

T"U B'AV

In the final mishna in TAANIT, Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel tells us that there were no more joyous festivals in Israel than T"U b'AV and Yom Kippur. Right in the middle of this "tragic" month, the month whose entrance was accompanied by the diminishing of our joy, we have the most joyous of festivals.

Ponder the various reasons for T"U b'Av, and see in each one the message of consolation and promise... and therefore joy.

In the aftermath of the "sin of the spies", G-d decreed that the entire adult male population of that generation should die out during 40 years of wandering. Not only was this decree handed down on Tish'a b'Av, but the "sentence" was carried out on Tish'a b'Av each year. Each year, the men of Israel would dig graves and sleep in them. In the morning, Moshe would announce "let the living separate from the dead". Each year, approximately 15,000 men were thus buried; the others living on for at least another year. In the final year of wandering, none of the remaining 15,000 died. Not on Tish'a b'Av eve, nor the next night, nor the next. The people thought they had erred in the calculation of the days of the month, but when the full moon of Av took its place in the sky, all joyously realized that the decree against the remaining men had been rescinded through G- d's mercy. The 15th of Av was thus marked as a day of joy. Tish'a b'Av commemorates the "sin of the spies"; T"U b'Av marks the joy of being alive and the ability to make amends and "move on". It marks forgiveness, even from very serious sins.

T"U b'Av was the end of the wood-gathering for the Altar. After this date, the power of the sun diminishes due to the shortening length of the day. Since it is essential that the wood for the fires of the Altar be free of worms and insects, it was feared that after T"U b'Av the wood might not sufficiently dry out to avoid infestation. The completion of the wood-gathering season was an occasion for special korbanot in the Mikdash, and T"U b'Av was celebrated as a family festival for those involved in this special mitzva. Again note that 9Av marks destruction of the Temple; the 15th celebrates the Beit HaMikdash.

Following the terrible episode of the "pilegesh from Giv'a", there was a ban placed on marrying into the tribe of Binyamin. This ban was lifted on a T"U b'Av.

For a long period of time, due to a misunderstanding in the rulings concerning who the daughters of Zelofchad should marry, there was little or no inter-tribal marriage. After a later Sanhedrin clarified the issue, inter-tribal marriages became commonplace. This reuniting of all of Israel, was associated with T"U b'Av.

The mishna referred to above, tells us that the young maidens of Jerusalem would wear borrowed white dresses, so as not to embarrass one who had no dresses... and they would dance in the vineyards... (so that eligible young men might choose their brides).

This, the two items mentioned above (daughters of Zelofchad and the tribe of Binyamin), and the fact that there have not been weddings during the Three Weeks, combine to make T"U b'Av a special day for Shiduchim and marriages, and a truly joyous day.

Following the fall of Beitar about 65 years after the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (on a Tish'a b'Av, non-coincidentally), the Romans did not permit the dead bodies of the Jews to be buried, as a punishment for rebelling and resisting Rome. A few years later, a new emperor allowed burial of the bodies. Our sources say that this was on the 15th of Av. The bodies were found not to have decayed. The Sanhedrin at Yavne declared this a miracle and composed the fourth bracha of Birkat HaMazon - HaTov V'ha'Meitiv, to thank G-d for His kindnesses, even in darkest of times. Notice the trend here. Just about every facet of Tish'a b'Av finds its way into the nature of T"U b'AV, but in an opposite - positive sense. It is almost as if we couldn't handle Tish'a b'Av without a day of a very different nature less than a week later. T"U b'Av represents in so many ways the light at the end of the tunnel and the reminder that the Geula is just a step away.

From Hasidic Wisdom by Simcha Raz (Elkins/Elkins)

For redemption to arrive, two things must happen: The Israelite people must be taken out of exile. And the exile must be taken out of the Israelite people. The latter is more difficult than the former.

- Rabbi Mordechai of Ger

Dear President Katzav,

In the name of the Israel Center of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the Israel Division of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, we would like to congratulate you on your election as President of the State of Israel.

We believe, like you, in the unity of the Jewish People and, like you, wish to play our part in inspiring the youth of this generation with the beauty of our Tradition and in meeting the challenges of the modern Jewish State of Israel.

For more than twenty years, the Orthodox Union's Israel Center has served a wide range of English-speaking Olim, students, and visitors with lectures and classes in an informal adult educational setting, as well as with a variety of other programs and activities geared to strengthen the bond of the Jew with his People, his Land, and his Heritage. We also reach out to the Olim from the FSU with programs designed to ease their K'lita into Israeli society and Jewish life.

It will be our pleasure to welcome you to the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union World Center, which will be opening its doors in the near future, and to receive your blessing for our continued efforts to improve the spiritual quality of life within Am Yisrael.

Sincerely,

Rabbi David Cohen, Director General, OU Israel

Mr. Yitzhak Fund, Co-Chairman of the Board, Israel Center

Rabbi Emanuel Quint, Co-Chairman of the Board, Israel Center

Mr. Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center

Rabbi Michael Fredman, Director, NCSY in Israel

Dr. Mandell I. Ganchrow, President, Orthodox Union

Rabbi Raphael B. Butler, Executive, Vice President, Orthodox Union

Mr. Marcel Weber, Chairman, Board of Directors, Orthodox Union

Dr. Marcos Katz, Chairman, Board of Governors, Orthodox Union

FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR

"Comfort my people, comfort them, says your G-d." Thus exclaims Isaiah at the beginning of this week's haftarah, having recognized that the people of Yerushalayim "stole" the heart of Hashem, and that like thieves they received at the Lord's hands "double for all her sins."

In response, as it were, the comfort to be extended to Yerushalayim was also doubled - Nachamu, nachamu. So, those who live in Yerushalayim and those who comfort her both bear an extra responsibility. And Hashem urges even more of Jerusalem's comforters, for they are also bidden to, "Speak comfortably to Yerushalayim and to call out to her…!"

Where else have we seen such total commitment of our consciousness in the enactment of our duty? Of course - in the Shema recounted in this week's parshah, Etchanan: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." Yes, all our faculties - emotive, intellectual, and enactive - are garnered in the service of Hashem.

And so should our commitment to Yerushalayim be all embracing, for Isaiah proclaims - "Comfort!" (Identify emotionally), "Speak!" (Use your powers of cognition) and "Call out!" (Exert your will actively), in order to make "in the desert a highway for our God."

And so we should continue to embrace Yerushalyim in our days. And doubly so, in the spirit of Nachamu, nachamu, so that in the prophet's later vision, Yerushalayim will now be called, "A city not forsaken."

Sincerely yours, Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center

As you read these words, 34 boys from Israel (entering 10-12th grade) are spending three intensive weeks in Kharkov on the second annual Kharkov Summer Kollel program. With their Rosh Kollel and two madrichim, they are learning, teaching local youth, touring, and enjoying camp-style activities. Their own learning is "top-rate" and the experience of introducing Ukrainian Jewish youth, ranging in age from 9 to 19, to the basics of Judaism is very powerful. They are joined for part of the time by JOLT, NCSY's Jewish Overseas Leadership Training program for select high school students from the States. As such, there is a combination of OU/NCSY youth from Israel, the United States, and the Ukraine who share a special educational and emotional growing experience... and have fun too.

Dear Ema & Abba,

Thanks for dropping me off at Ben-Gurion last Thursday. What a scene! Boxes everywhere to take with us to the Ukraine full of foodstuffs and hard to get items over there. In the end, they let us on with all the overweight. Of course, we only had with us what we needed for the next three weeks, including books, but you should have seen the 34 of us with all those boxes.

Well, we landed around midnight in Kiev and there was a bus waiting to take us the 7½ hour ride to Kharkov, arriving Erev Shabbat. Soon after we got to the campsite, we realized that the kitchen needed kashering, which some of the guys promptly took care of! Imagine us kashering a kitchen! Immediately after, we set about putting up an eruv for Shabbat (I can't say I knew we would be doing this kind of stuff when I signed up for Kollel…).

Anyway, Shabbat was great, with great ruach and avirah and the local kids having a super time. The learning is solid, and teaching the little kids is an amazing experience. We hope to have bris milah performed for some of the boys, who unbelievably, have not as yet had.

We spent a day in the city of Kharkov and even had time out to go do "paint ball".

All in all, we're doing real good - you can feel the contribution you make immediately and all around you. It's tremendously gratifying and also leaves you with a sense of awesome responsibility.

I'll try and write more soon, try not to worry.

Love, Yuval

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