יד יוסף: Balak - Changing Mourning to Joy

The Seventeenth of Tammuz is one of the four fasts mourning the destruction of the Temple. From time to time it falls on Shabbos as it does this year. When this happens the practice is to push it off until, Sunday, the next day. The fact that we are eating, drinking, and celebrating on the 17^th of Tammuz hints at the way the day should be and in the future will be observed.

When the Jews returned from exile in Babylon they asked the prophet Zechariah if they should fast on the ninth of Av for the destruction of the first Temple as they had been doing previously (see Zechariah 7:3). The prophet gives a somewhat lengthy answer that seems to come down to the idea that the fast is not to mourn a world that is lost and never will return. Rather it is to stir our hearts to repentance by recalling the bad deeds of our ancestors which are like our own bad deeds, and are causing much of our misery today (Cf. Shlomo Ganzfried, Code of Jewish Law 121:1). He basically concludes by saying that the four fast days marking the destruction of the Temple shall be celebrated as joyous festivals when the people love truth and peace as it says “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth [month], the fast of the seventh [month], and the fast of the tenth [month] shall be for the house of Judah for joy and happiness and for happy holidays; and truth and peace you are to love” (Zechariah 8:19).

The Gemara (Rosh Hashana 18b) brings a discussion among the sages about this verse saying that these days are called fasts and called joy and celebration. Rabbi Shimon the Hasid interprets this to mean that when there is peace they are to be joyous celebrations but when there is war they are to be fasts. Rabbi Poppa says when there is peace they are to be joyous celebrations but when there is government persecution (גזרת מלכות) they are to be fasts. If there is no persecution but there is not peace those who want to fast may do so and those that do not want to fast need not do so.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson זצ"ל in explaining that Shabbos pushes off the fast, remarks that the feelings of mourning should not overpower the feelings of redemption (Likutey Sichos Parshiyot, volume 35, Chukas-Balak 8). He adds that the eating and drinking on Shabbos in lieu of the fast of the 17^th of Tammuz hints at the feast on the meat of the leviathan that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will prepare for the righteous in the days of the messiah.

The reason we joyfully celebrate a day of pain is because we have learned something from it. Sometimes our journey on the straight and honest path starts with a hard knock. Not long after World War 2 there were many movies made about it. It was common to have a scene with a panic stricken soldier screaming hysterically. His commanding officer would approach him and slap him in the face. The soldier would immediately regain his composure and with a responsible tone in his voice say, “Thanks Sarge, I needed that”. King David expressed the idea profoundly when he prayed that his heart should not be seduced into an evil way of life as it says, “May a tsadik slap me as an act of kindness and rebuke me, oil from my head do not hold back, for my prayer is still for their bad”, (Psalm 145:5).

The Talmud teaches us that the first Temple was destroyed because of murder, adultery, and idolatry and the second temple was destroyed because of gratuitous hatred. These are things that no intelligent decent person would want any part of. On the contrary we should attach ourselves to the three pillars of the world -- pursuit of knowledge, getting our hearts in the right place, and doing kind things for each other (Ethics of our Fathers 1:2) . If we haven’t learned these lessons we really should be mournfully fasting on these days. If we have learned these lessons, the day we learned them should be a celebration.