Dancing in the Vineyards - Vaetchanan
פָּנִים בְּפָנִים דִּבֶּר ה' עִמָּכֶם בָּהָר מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵש. (דברים ה, ד)
The Mefarshim say that Eisav and the yetzer harah managed to gain control over the months of Tamuz and Av, but that Yaakov, when he wrestled with the angel, succeeded in retrieving the second half of Av. This is why the month is called אב because the first half is ארור and the second half is ברוך, from טו באב onwards.
Tu Be’Av, which is this coming erev Shabbat, is a day of celebration. Chazal in the Mishna (Ta’anit, 4, 8) say that Am Yisrael never had ימים טובים like Tu Be’Av and Yom Kippur. The Gemara (Ta’anit 31a) goes on to list all the good things that happened on Tu Be’Av.
What is the connection between Tu Be’Av and Yom Kippur? The Mishna (above) quotes a passuk –
צְאֶינָה וּרְאֶינָה בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן בַּמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה בָּעֲטָרָה שֶׁעִטְּרָה לּוֹ אִמּוֹ בְּיוֹם חֲתֻנָּתוֹ וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַת לִבּוֹ. (שיר השירים ג, יא).
The Mishna says בְּיוֹם חֲתֻנָּתוֹ, that Shlomo Hamelech was married on the day we received the second set of Luchot (Yom Kippur) and וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַת לִבּוֹ - was Tu Be’Av, the day the 1st Beit Hamikdash was built and will hopefully be rebuilt בבי"א.
For this reason, many of the Mefarshim (Ritva, Maharil, etc.) say that the Shabbat after Tisha Be’Av, Shabbat Nachamu, is a special Shabbat and we should celebrate more than on a normal Shabbat – serve a special dish, sing more songs etc.
One of the interesting highlights of Tu Be’Av and Yom Kippur, mentioned in the above Mishna, is that בנות ישראל would go out and “dance in the vineyards”. Davka these two days of the year were exemplified by the unmarried girls dancing in the vineyards as part of a shidduch ceremony, to attract suitable grooms.
Why davka dancing? What is so special about dancing and why davka on these two days?
In this shiur I would like to bring a number of principles from Meir Panim related to one of the opinions in the Gemara (Menachot 94b), regarding the shape of the Lechem Hapanim that it was like a “dancing ship” and its connection to our avodat Hashem.
There are two terms used for dancing in the Tanach. In the Chumash there is only one word for dancing - מחול, for example וַתִּקַּח מִרְיָם ..... וַתֵּצֶאןָ כָל הַנָּשִׁים אַחֲרֶיהָ בְּתֻפִּים וּבִמְחֹלֹת. In the rest of the Nach, another word is also used - ריקוד, for example הֶהָרִים רָקְדוּ כְאֵילִים (תהילים קיד, ד).
The word מחול embodies a “schizophrenic” personality, like two sides of a coin. On the one hand the meaning is negative, as in the word מחלה (for example one of Merari’s sons was named מחלי because he was not a healthy child), or in the word לחלל, for example in relation to one of the Ten Commandments that appear in Vaetchanan, Shabbat - מְחַלְלֶיהָ מוֹת יוּמָת. One the other hand the meaning is positive, as in dancing or in the word מחילה, (for example one of Tzlofchad’s daughters was named מַחְלָה, meaning forgiveness).
Another perfect example of this duality is in the passuk צוּר יְלָדְךָ תֶּשִׁי וַתִּשְׁכַּח אֵ-ל מְחֹלְלֶךָ (דברים לב, יח). The Midrash Sifri brings different explanations for the word מְחֹלְלֶךָ, some negative like שנצטער בך כענין חיל כיולדה, or שעשאך חולים על כל באי העולם, and some positive like שהחיל שמו עליך ולא על כל אומה, or שמוחל לך על כל עוונותיך.
Also the word רקד, the second term used for dancing in Nach, is a double sided coin. On the one hand it can be הֶהָרִים רָקְדוּ כְאֵילִים, but if you switch the letters around it can also be דקר – a form of killing. The gematria of רקד is שד, a demon.
Not surprisingly therefore, dancing has the power to do good or evil.
After Shirat Hayam, Miriam led all the women in song and dance. The gematria of the word וּבִמְחֹלֹת is בתוך הגן, referring to the עץ החיים in Gan Eden. However we also know that there was another tree “dancing” in Gan Eden, the עץ הדעת.
When Am Yisrael sinned with the עגל הזהב, Moshe returned to find them dancing וַיַּרְא אֶת הָעֵגֶל וּמְחֹלֹת וַיִּחַר אַף מֹשֶׁה. The gematria of וּמְחֹלֹת is נשמה גוף, one spiritual and the other physical, like the two trees in Gan Eden.
The Sforno says that the essence of the sin of the עגל הזהב was the dancing, without the dancing the sin would not have been so severe. Am Yisrael were in a panic – the שטן showed them a vision of Moshe’s coffin floating in the air and they thought that he was dead. No Moshe – no leader, no food! Bizchut Moshe, Am Yisrael received the Mann. They were stuck at the bottom of Har Sinai, in the middle of the desert with only the Mann to eat! It is understandable for someone to panic in such a situation and panic makes people do silly things, things they would not normally do. However, there is one thing someone does not do when they are in a panic – they do not dance. The fact that Am Yisrael were dancing and rejoicing around the עגל, that was unforgiveable.
This then is the essence of dancing – נשמה גוף. Dancing is like a puppet supported by strings. Some strings pull upward (נשמה) and others pull downwards (גוף). The question is – what is the general direction? If the direction is upwards and spiritual, then dancing is something positive, elevated. If the direction is downwards and material, the dancing is something negative.
In Meir Panim I explore the interaction between the גוף and the נשמה as they relate to the act of smiling and the bidirectional communication between the גוף and the נשמה. Seemingly the two are so disparate that “never the twain shall meet”, however this is not the case. There is an intermediate level, called the רוח that connects them. Reb Chaim of Volozhyn, in his sefer Nefesh HaChayim, describes the concept of the נר"ן – Neshama, Ruach and Nefesh (גוף). He uses the allegory of a glass blower.
To create a glass vessel, the glass blower takes a deep breath and then transfers this breath from his mouth to the hot piece of molten glass, via a straight glass pipe, which inflates the molten glass and gives it form. The Nefesh Chayim says that the breath is the word of HKB”H which is purely spiritual (נשמה) and cannot reside directly in a physical body. It must be transferred to the physical body (נפש/גוף) via an intermediary level (רוח) that reduces it to a form that can exist in a physical body.
In this way there is bi-directional communication between the body and the neshama. Something that originates in the neshama, filters down and is eventually reflected in the physical body. A smile is such a phenomenon. The joy of the spiritual neshama is reflected in the physical form by a smile. Conversely, the physical body has an effect on the neshama. The laws of kashrut are an example. Someone who eats food that is not Kasher, is not harming his physical body (there are many strapping people in the peak of physical health that eat treif), but this filters through the intermediary level up to the neshama and causes it damage.
Dancing is another manifestation of this phenomenon. Joy from the neshama filters down and may be reflected in the body by dancing – using not just the mouth to smile, but the entire body. Dancing is a “full body smile”, reflecting the spiritual joy. Conversely, if the dancing is from the opposite side of the coin, a lewd, uninhibited manifestation of something purely physical, this may have a negative effect on the neshama and be the source of sin. It is all about which direction the strings are pulling in.
Dancing on Tu Be’av and Yom Kippur reflect an upward pulling of the strings, an elevated, spiritual manifestation of dancing.
You would think that on Yom Kippur the last thing anyone would have on their mind is shidduchim or ….. dancing. Yom Kippur is a “somber” day, a serious day of reflection and introspection. However, that is not the essence of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is in fact a day of great rejoicing, it is a day when we are cleansed of all our sins and given a clean slate. What could be more joyous that that? HKB”H presses our reset button and we are like a newborn, all over again.
What else reminds you of such a cleaning of the slate? When a חתן and כלה are married, all their sins are forgiven! It is not incidental that Shlomo Hamelech was married on Yom Kippur, the day that HKB”H gave Am Yisrael the second set of Luchot and forgave our sin of the עגל. Both are a reset! What better day for a חתן to choose his כלה than on Yom Kippur.
The dancing of the unmarried women in the vineyards was not anything like a Roman orgy, chas vechalila. Lehavdil, it was a spiritually uplifting occasion done in complete טהרה of thought. Davka Yom Kippur is the perfect day for such an event.
Similarly, Tu Be’Av is also a reset. A mere six days before, we mourned the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash and the sins that reduced us to the depths of despair. However, Tu Be’Av is the turning point that Yaakov managed to wrestle from the שר של עשו – it signifies the switch from ארור to ברוך, a cleaning of the slate. It was the day that Shlomo Hamelech built the 1st Mikdash and, the Mishna tells us, also the day that the third Mikdash will be rebuilt בבי"א. It is the switch from despair to hope.
The Gemara calls the shape of the Lechem Hapanim in the Beit HaMikdash – a ספינה רוקדת, a “dancing ship”. Why a “dancing” ship, not just a “ship”? A ship is a vessel that must be able to survive the harshest storm. If the ship remains static in the water, it will be deluged and sink. The ship’s ability of motion, to “dance” and adjust with the undulating mountainous waves of water, is what enables it to stay afloat and endure the storm.
On the Shulchan in the Mikdash you have twelve loaves, representing the Twelve Tribes of Am Yisrael, all shaped like a “dancing ship”. Their ability to dance, adjust and adapt is what ensures their peaceful coexistence on the Shulchan before Hashem. Without motion and flexibility, they would be like a rigid stick in a strong wind that snaps. However, as long as they have motion, like a reed that bends in the wind, even though they are downtrodden and in the depths of despair, they will always be able to crest the wave and spring back without breaking in two.
It was rigidity of thought and behavior that resulted in the destruction of the 2nd Mikdash, an unwillingness to bend. This is what brought our nation to the depths of despair. Because Am Yisrael, the ship, lost its ability to dance and live in peace and harmony with the other ships, we have been for the last 1952 years like a ship without its captain, as the kings mourned the death of Avraham Avinu – ואוי לה לספינה שאבד קברינטא (Bava Batra 91b). The seemingly endless galut has wreaked untold damage on our nation, both physical and spiritual. The vast majority of Am Yisrael today is like a ship without its captain.
However, from the depths of despair we are fast approaching the turning point, when HKB”H gives us another reset, when He reveals Himself to Am Yisrael and the entire world, beyond all shadow of a doubt. When that happens, the transformation will be כהרף עין, instantaneous, as it was in יציאת מצרים and all the souls we have come to regard as lost will do tshuva and in a flash, the damage of 1952 years will be instantly healed.
The first two Luchot were rigid and were smashed. The second Luchot we received on Yom Kippur are like a “dancing ship” – they have endured. For Am Yisrael to endure and merit the Geulah, we also must soften our hearts, dance and bend and learn to coexist with the other “ships” on the Shulchan. We must learn to smile, to reflect the פני ה' so that we can once again be פָּנִים בְּפָנִים with our Creator. The first two Batei Mikdash are like the first two Luchot that were smashed. That was in the first half of Av. However, we are now at the turning point signaled by Tu Be’Av. Despair has turned to hope. The כלה, Am Yisrael is dancing in the vineyards waiting for the חתן, HKB”H to sweep her off her feet to the chuppah and from there to her new home that will endure forever and ever.
נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ עַמִּי יֹאמַר אֱ-לֹקֵיכֶם
