Will We Achieve Full Clarity This TU b'Av?

14 Menachem Av 5783

I'm posting this a bit early so you won't miss seeing the rising of the "supermoon" tonight.

Tu B'Av Clarifies Tish'a B'Av

According to our Sages, the Mashiach is born on the 9th of Av. This is the day of national mourning over the destruction of the two Temples. The initial tragedy of Tish'a B'Av (the 9th of Av) took place when the spies returned to the Israelites in the desert with a negative report about the Land of Israel. The Israelites accepted their evil words and cried. As their sorrow was actually unfounded, God decreed that the Jewish People would have good reason to cry on this night. The sin of accepting the evil report on the Land of Israel is the source for the destruction of the Temples and all the subsequent sorrows of exile related to Tish'a B'Av.

For the next 40 years, it was decreed on the generation of the desert to die. Every Tish'a B'Av eve, they would sleep in a collective grave. Upon waking in the morning, 1/40th of the people would be dead. On the 40th year, nobody died. The Israelites, thinking that they had possibly miscalculated the 9th of Av, continued to sleep in the collective grave until the full moon on the 15th of Av, when the 9th of Av had clearly passed. Tu B'Av then became a day of celebration. Although the decree had objectively ended on the 9th of Av, this only became subjectively revealed on the 15th of Av.

Clarification of Good from Bad

When Adam and Eve prematurely ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they created a mixture of good and evil in reality. Ever since, it has been upon their descendants to clarify the good from the evil. When this clarification process is finished, the Mashiach may be born.

Pregnancy is a process of clarification, in which the living fetus is clarified from the impure matter in the womb. Our work of clarification to bring the Mashiach is also similar to pregnancy. Although the Mashiach is ready to be born on the 9th of Av, it is not until the 15th of Av that this is subjectively clear. 

...The 15th of Av is the end of this clarification process.  We can then open our eyes and see the Mashiach born.  (Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg)

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Two Supermoons In August...

The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons culminating in a rare blue moon.

Catch the first show Tuesday evening as the full moon rises in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. That’s because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometers) away, thus the supermoon label.

The moon will be even closer the night of Aug. 30 — a scant 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) distant. Because it’s the second full moon in the same month, it will be what’s called a blue moon.

...The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won’t happen again until 2037....