5785/2024

The Mishnah at the end of Masechet Taanit tells us that Yom Kippur is one of the two happiest days on the calendar. I remember learning this idea as a young child and being very confused.  As far as I was concerned it, along with Tisha B'av, was one of the two worst days on the calendar. Happy days were days with good food, hanging out with my friends and overall a relaxed atmosphere. Yom Kippur is none of those things. We are not allowed to eat, we spend almost all day in shul talking to Hashem in intense conversation. What makes Yom Kippur happy?  

Fortunately, the Gemara explains there are two things about Yom Kippur that generate great joy; it is the day that Hashem forgives our sins and the day Hashem granted us the second Luchot. The first is definitely a positive, but I would not directly correlate it with happiness. The fact that we got the Luchot a second time is also definitely great, however wouldn't the day we received the first Luchot be a happier day?

To understand the happiness of Yom Kippur, let us look at the other day the Gemara lists, Tu B’Av.  What is special about the fifteenth day of Av? The Gemara lists several events that occurred on that day, all of them contributing to the day’s positivity. The latest event the Gemara describes is the burial of those massacred at Beitar. The Gemara in Gittin describes that Beitar was the last stronghold of the Bar Kochva revolt. When the Romans finally quashed the rebellion, they not only killed the insurrection’s leaders and soldiers, but they entered Beitar and massacred everyone, men women and children. To add insult to injury, they decreed that none of the dead would be allowed to be buried, to  deter future revolt. Years later, when the decree was rescinded, the Jews who entered Beitar were surprised by what they found. Miraculously, they found that not a single one of the bodies rotted in any way. Hashem protected the bodies from natural decay until they could be buried. Chazal were so taken by the miracle that they instituted a special bracha to thank Hashem. This says the Gemara is the reason for the fourth bracha of Birkat HaMazon. It is also one of the many things we celebrate on Tu B'av.

The miracle of Beitar was a great one, but after some thought it seems a little odd.  Hashem performed miracles for his people for generations, but this one seems to be out of place.  Unlike other holiday related miracles, this one didn’t save anyone. All the other miracles we have holidays to celebrate Hashem saved us, on Pesach from Paroh, on Purim, from Haman, on Chanukah from Antiochus. Yet here the people were not saved from the Romans, they were murdered. The miracle was after we had already lost the war, and we were still subservient to the Romans. And yet the Gemara believes that this miracle where not one life was saved somehow makes this day happier than the other ones. Why does this make any sense?  Why is this miracle so much happier? And if Hashem wasn’t going to save us, why make a miracle after the fact?

To answer we must recognize the mindset of the Jew at the time. The Beit HaMikdash had been destroyed. There was no longer Jewish sovereignty. The Romans had erected an Avodah Zara temple at the  Makom HaMikdash. A number of attempts at rebellion had failed. And then Bar Kochva rose and started to fight back. For a few years he seemed to succeed. He was going to restore order, Torah and the Beit HaMikdash would once again thrive. Rebbe Akiva even thought that he was going to be the Mashiach. The redemption was on its way. And then it wasn’t. Betar and Bar Kochva fell. It was over and done. The last breath of hope had been extinguished. To us, thousands of years later, who have the advantage of the perspective of time, we can understand that Torah would not fail, but to the people of the time, it was not so clear. For all intents and purposes, Judaism as the people had known and understood had ended. It would be understandable for someone at the time to ask “Is Hashem still with us?” The miracle of Beitar was the answer for all generations to that question. Hashem showed us that yes, he wasn’t going to save us because we had earned Galut and punishment.  However, He would never abandon us. We were his people for generations. The miracle of Beitar wasn’t a classic miracle, but in some ways it was greater. To know that when all is failing around us and the world we know is no longer, Hashem is there with us is crucial. As Chazal explain, when we go into exile, Hashem, so to speak, goes with us, עמו אנכי בצרה. Hashem feels our pain and experiences it with us. This gives us eternal hope. That hope is why Tu B'av is such a happy day.  After the pain and destruction of Tisha B'av, to sit at your lowest point and know that Hashem is always there, and there is always hope creates a sense of joy that makes all the delicious food and fun parties seem small.

This kind of happiness, the happiness of hope, is what Yom Kippur is all about. Hashem gave us the second set of Luchot. This happiness is greater than the happiness from the first set of Luchot. The first set was given before the Cheit Ha’Eigel, when their relationship with Hashem was still pristine. But the second set of Luchot were after, after we had sinned, after our relationship with Hashem was fractured. And after all of that Moshe came down the mountain with a gift from Hashem. Hashem still gave us his most valuable possession, the Torah. Hashem was telling us that even through sin, He will still be there, there is still hope and therefore happiness is still possible. 

The Yom Kippur that we observe today is the same. Yes it is a somber day, yes we cannot eat and yes, we don’t hang out with friends. There is no party. But it is a day that reminds us that our relationship with Hashem is unbreakable. We over the last year have sinned. We have not done what we were supposed to. Those things have distanced us from Him. But that doesn't mean our relationship is over, or fractured. Teshuva is still possible. Hashem sits on His throne waiting for Teshuvah. Allowing us to return, to rectify our mistakes. It is the day that Hashem says to us let's fix our relationship, let's be better. We still have a future together. We take the first step and Hashem helps with the rest. Knowing that he is there waiting for us, no matter how dark the world around us, that there is hope that Hashem is always with us, what could be happier than that?