Q&A: Av and Adar
Av and Adar
Question
Good evening
The Talmud compares Av and Adar: in one we diminish joy, and in the other we increase joy.
In Av we find a gradual process: the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, the week in which the Ninth of Av falls, etc. (Rabbi Soloveitchik explains and distinguishes between old mourning and new mourning; with old mourning one has to enter into the sadness, to create it.)
Why in Adar do we not find such a gradual process, only the general statement, “When Adar enters, we increase joy”? (Even though this statement was not brought by Nachmanides or in the Shulchan Arukh.) On the face of it, even entering into an established joy should require a process.
With blessings,
Answer
I did not understand the basis for this comparison. Is it that just as in mourning one sits low, in joy one must sit high? Is it that just as in mourning there are seven days, in joy there also need to be seven days? In Av we are speaking about ten days, and in Adar about fifteen days and even a month. In short, there are aspects in which they are similar or opposite, and there are aspects in which they are not. There is no reason to extend such an analogy or contrast beyond the sphere where it is actually relevant.
And more specifically, as is well known, even in psychology people distinguish between different stages of mourning, and I am not familiar with parallel stages of joy. Beyond that, mourning has to be handled carefully—it is not a desirable state, certainly not as a permanent one—but joy can be treated more spontaneously, without supervision, stages, and the like.