Rav Shai's Torah on the Grow

New moons were mini celebrations in ancient Israel. A few men would kill a goat (Numbers 28:15), and everyone else would feast. In our family, ice cream is the preferred method for celebrating the new moon.

But is the new moon of Av, which begins at sunset on August 1, a time to celebrate? The Talmud tells us from the moment Av enters, we are to diminish our joy in recognition that the ninth of Av, tisha b’Av, commemorates the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. To diminish our joy, however, is not to be joyless. If normally we would feast on the new moon, let us make do with one fewer dish. Although our children are still entitled to a Rosh Hodesh (new moon) treat, they don’t get ice cream on Rosh Hodesh Av. Until tisha b’Av, we turn down the volume, but we can still listen to our favorite music. Only on tisha b’Av is the music silenced.

When my mother died, I recited a blessing. When I received the inheritance, I recited a different blessing. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: “Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time.” Since no two moments are identical, no two attempts to sanctify the moment should be. As Kohelet/Ecclesiastes, Pete Seeger, and the Byrds all understood, emotional multitasking is counterproductive. There is a time for feasting, and a time for fasting. There is a time for ice cream, and a time for refraining from ice cream.