At the end of Parshas Balak we read that a Jewish man brought a non-Jewish woman close to him and they did what they did [OY VEY!]. The pasuk relates והמה בוכים פתח אוהל מועד they [the Jews] were crying at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Rashi says that they were crying because at the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe knew exactly what to do with the sinners but here he forgot what the halacha says to do when someone publicly has relations with a non-Jewish woman. Pinchas remembered the halacha and swiftly carried out their punishment.
Why is it important to note WHERE the Jews were crying, namely פתח אוהל מועד - at the entrance to the tent of meeting? It would have been enough to write that they were crying. Why is the location important?
The Maharsha [Sanhedrin 82a] explains that the אוהל מועד was the place from where the halacha would emerge. The Jews were crying because the halacha no longer came from this ohel moed.
When a person learns new things in Torah it gives him simcha. I used to have a chavrusa with a man in his 90's who had no wife or children and was basically all alone in the world for much of his life. I was constantly amazed to see how happy the learning made him. We were studying Bava Metzia which had no practical application to his life [he didn't own any fields which is what we were learning about...] but the learning gave him life, spirit and joy [and me too...].
We can suggest that BECAUSE the Jews were crying Moshe Rabbeinu forget the halacha. In order to think new, original Torah thoughts one must be bi-simcha [see Kiddushin 20a]. Otherwise the wellsprings of wisdom are sealed. The sadness of the Jews brought about a momentary inability for Moshe to tap into his personal data-base of Torah law and he simply forgot what to do when the act that was taking place before him transpires. Sadness dulls ones mind and memory to Torah which is an entity of simcha.
In order for a kohen to bless the Jewish people the Zohar says that he must be bi-simcha. Pinchas was the one who remembered the halacha, meaning that he was happy. Therefore, his reward was that he and his seed became Kohanim for all times [and bless the Jews with simcha].
Tisha b'av is time when we mourn because, according to our Rabbis, we cried a בכיה של חינם - we were sad for naught. The tikkun is to be happy for no special reason!!
The gemara says משנכנס אב ממעטים בשמחה which was translated by the Baal Shem Tov as "When we enter Av, we lessen our tzaros through simcha".
The yetzer hara tries to get us down. He will do ANYTHING. He will get us to feel guilty about our aveiros and even our mitzvos. He will put us in stressful situations and blow everything out of proportion. He will get us to read lots of websites with distressing news so that we will sink into a world of cynicism and depression. He will make us hate other people. It is really no holds barred for that shmendrick we call the yetzer hara.
Our job is not to succumb!! As we used to cry out during color war "WE - SHALL - NOT - BE - BEAT - WE - SHALL - NOT - BE - BEAT!!!" You have problems with your children? Everybody does!!:-) You have money issues? EVERYBODY I know has "issues" with money and I know quite a few multi -millionaires. Your shalom bayis isn't what you want? Welcome to a large club! Having trouble finding a shidduch? Hey - Yaakov Avinu didn't get married until he was a senior citizen!! LIFE IS TOUGH!!! That doesn't mean you should get down. Health issues? They ain't so many doctors for nothing. Sometimes I call for an appointment and the secretary is like "In four and a half months on Tuesday at 11:15". Hmmmm. Lots of sick people around. [Or the doctor enjoys looong vacations].
If we want to do a mitzva in memory of the holy souls of the three kedoshim - here is an idea....
Every day - make it your business to bring simcha into the lives of three people. It can be a phone call, an email, a kind word at work, a check, a small gift [if it's your wife - a big gift. She deserves it] anything to help people feel more simcha in our depressed-can't-sleep-without-
An excerpt from the book "A Blaze In The Darkening Bloom" page 365 [Feldheim Publishers] about Rav Meyer Shapiro, in whose millions of daf yomi pages have been studied.
The hour of night grew later and later. On a piece of paper he asked that he be shown all the prescriptions which the doctors had written. When they were handed him, he went through them and selected the one for a preparation to cleanse the throat and the respiratory organs and he asked that a new supply be gotten for him. Every few minutes he kept washing his hands while his mind was obviously immersed in distant thoughts. The evident struggle that he had to make to draw breath was heartbreaking.
One could feel the frightful, racking agony that he had to undergo to try to get a bit of air into his lungs, and try as he would, he kept failing, because the channels were blocked. On a piece of paper, her scrawled a request to be carried into another chamber that he designated by its number ("Room number so-and-so"). Interestingly, that room had two doors, each with the name of an organization that had contributed money toward its construction. One door bore the name of the Bikur Cholim society (for care of the sick) of Chicago; the other, of the Chesed Shel Emes Society (for proper Jewish burial) of St. Louis. When the transfer was accomplished, he asked for a change into a clean shirt and a fresh Talis Katan. Needless to say, his wishes were carried out.
But then his wife, the Rebbetzin, noticed a change in his countenance, and she began weeping emotionally. Rav Meir did his best to calm her, as he wrote the message, "Now the true Simcha begins"… In a broken, barely legible scrawl he wrote, "Let everyone drink l'Chayim!" Some liquor was poured out into tiny glasses, and all who were there drank and wished him l'Chayim, "to life!" Then he shook hands with them all, one by one, holding each one's hand in his for a long time. And now he gave his instruction, "Make a Rikud (a little Chassidic dance) to the words, 'b'Cha Batchu Avoseinu' ("In You our fathers trusted, and You rescued them"; Tehilim 22:5). His wishes were obeyed: they joined hands, put hands on shoulders, and lifted their feet in rhythm as they sang the holy words to the melody they knew so well - the melody which he himself had composed. It was clear that the end was approaching.
Into the great Shul the young scholars came streaming now to say Tehilim, to implore Heaven's mercy for him... [As he noticed some of the dancing students sobbing,] clearly and distinctly he pronounced two Yiddish words: "Nor b'Simcha" ("Only with joy!"); then he snapped his fingers -- and expired. He passed over and away and out of his body. And he was gone from us [at the age of 46, leaving no children].
[Based, in part, on a talk given by the Tolna Rebbe Shlita - Seuda Shlishit 5768]
