Shabbas during the Three Weeks by Chaim Gershon

   The three weeks is a period of mourning: yet they include three shabbosim. How should we feel on Shabbas during the mourning period of the Three Weeks for the Beis HaMikdash? There is a halacha that one cannot show public signs of aveilus  on Shabbas. By analogy, mourning for a person should be no different that mourning for Temple. Indeed the halachic framework setup to commemorate the destruction of the Temple is suspended on Shabbas. Moreover even if Tisha B'Av itself is Motzei Shabbas, one can eat meat and wine just before fast even as much as " the  banquets of Shlomo HaMelech at the height of his reign"; we do not eat the usual bread and ashes on this Shabbos. Nonetheless, there are those who have the custom on Shabbas Chazon to sing the mournful Eicha tune to L’cha Dodi and even to not wear Shabbas clothes. Nite Gavriel brings that there were communities who extending these customs even to the other two Shabbasim of teh Three Weeks. There are those who do not say the bracha Shechechiyanu even on Shabbas during the Three Weeks.

  On a hashkafic plain there is a tension between the enjoyment (Oneg) required on Shabbos and the Mourning for the Beis HaMikdash. Volumes have been written to teach and convey how one can assist feeling Shabbas such as this one . Books  and software have been written to help us feel the loss of Beith Hamikdash.  Few today can even claim to perceive the Supernal Temple and its connection to the remnants below. Can anyone fully relate to the perspective of the Ramchal of the Temple    .  

   The general Chassidic perspective on redemption (Maor V'Shemesh, Tiferes Shlomo, Imre Noam, Nesivos Shalom) is that the three Shabbas's during these weeks are much higher in holiness than those of the rest of the year: the Munkatcher Rebbe (Shar Yissoschar) quotes the Chozeh of Lublin that each one of teh three Shabbosim respectively possess the same essence as the three holidays of Pesach, Shavuous and Sukkos. The revelation of such a hidden level of good and/or the belief that Shabbas is a higher level than whatever happens in the world lead to  experience joy among mourning. In this vein,  R' Tzadok of Lublin (Pri Tzaddik) says that these three Sabbaths are a correction/tikkun for the three cardinal sins of Man (Chemda/jealousy, Gaava/Pride and Taavah/Desire). Chabad takes a complicated and somewhat more intellectual approach, focusing of the positive benefits of galus  as leading to Redemption (see footnotes)

   Others have pursued a more personal and emotional approach to this conundrum.

Do you feel the Shabbas? What do you feel during the three weeks? Do you feel a loss? What do you feel on Shabbas? Did you know that Shabbas is described in Tanya as bring on the level of Teshuvah Ilah ? There are many paradoxical possibilitiesthat can be experienced especially during this time of the year. Our mourning period occurrs during the summer which in the secular world is a happy time and time for vacations. During the times of the Temple, these summer days were days of Simcha due to the bringing of Bikkurim. Which of these losses do you experience? Perhaps it would be easier if the three weeks were during the winter when darkness would assist mourning. What; however, what would be the consequences if Tisha B'av rather than Channukah was the competing holiday of the season?!

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Footnote

יהפכו ימים אלו

לששון ולשמחה

על־ידי המצרים – משיגים...

השלימות שבעבודת הקרבנות לעתיד לבוא באה על־ידי העבודה בזמן הגלות דווקא. ועל־פי הכלל

הידוע שדבר הגורם הוא למעלה מהדבר הנגרם על־ידו, כיוון שבכוחו דווקא לגרום את הדבר, הרי מובן גודל

מעלת העבודה שבזמן הגלות, כיוון שעל־ידה דווקא באים לשלימות עבודת הקרבנות כמצוות רצונך.

ויש לומר, שזהו גם מה שכתוב השיגוה בין המצרים: שכאשר נמצאים בין המצרים, הנה דווקא אז השיגוה

– שמגיעים להשגות הכי נעלות, ועד שמגיעים לזמן שבו תהיה עבודת הקרבנות דלעתיד, שעניינם הוא

תכלית השלימות דדירה בתחתונים.

( ('תורת מנחם – התוועדויות' תשי"א ח"ב (ג) עמ' 235

שמחה בשבתות

עניין העצבות ש"בין המצרים" אינו צריך להיות בשבת, כיוון שבשבת צריכה להיות שמחה.

ויתירה מזה, בשבת זו צריכה להיות השמחה עוד יותר מאשר בשבת אחרת, כדי שלא יהיה חשש שהעדר

השמחה בא מצד העניין ד"בין המצרים".

והביאור בזה בפנימיות העניין:

שבת היא מעין דלעתיד לבוא, "יום שכולו שבת". ומכיוון שלעתיד תהיה הגאולה באופן שלא יישאר

שום רושם מהגלות – לכן גם בשבת אין צריך להיות העניין ד"בין המצרים".

( ('תורת מנחם – התוועדויות' תשט"ו ח"ב (יד) עמ' 224

להפוך לששון ולשמחה

...ענינה של שבת זו הוא נתינת כוח להפך את "בין המצרים" לששון ולשמחה, כיוון שהגילוי שלעתיד

– שהוא למעלה לגמרי מעניין גלות וגאולה – בכוחו להפך את "בין המצרים" גופא לששון ולשמחה.

וזהו גם כן מה שנפסק בשולחן־ערוך, שבשבת שבין המצרים מותר לעשות אפילו כסעודת שלמה

בשעתו, והרי בימי שלמה "קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא". בשבת זו ישנה נתינת כוח שהימים האלו יהפכו

לששון ולשמחה.

('תורת מנחם – התוועדויות' שם)

('תורת מנחם – התוועדויות' שם)

 

How Hamodia dealt with the question

Download Hamodia_Memory

 

How Mishpaha dealt with the question

Download SadnessandJoy

 

Comments

[anony]

so lemme get this straight. we are supposed to mourn because the rabbis say so. but not on shabbos. what are we, emotional robots? mourn, don't mourn, mourn, don't mourn. but then maybe we should sorta mourn on shabbos too. hey i have an idea. forget the whole thing. jerusalem is rebuilt, israel is a sovereign state, jews have f-16s and uzis. the whole idea of legislating mourning is too far out there. let it go.

[avakesh]

I ask you, did you never experience mixed emotions, joy and sadness, elation and grief at the same time? Do you know how to use and advance in it, or do you repress them because of the discomfort and strangeness of the experience?

Religion does not impose emotional burdens or solve the problems of life, but it gives man tools with which to manage them. Take this period of three weeks as a practice in how to experience mixed feelings to the fullest and learn how to sanctify this aspect of humane experience and psyche.