Look outside tonight and you’ll see a full moon. It’s a pretty sight, yet common folklore has associated lunacy - even vampires - with lunar fullness.
Well, Judaism sees spiritual beauty and meaning in the full moon.
The sun is the universe’s luminary, and the moon its reflector, and (as we observe it on earth) every month they go through a cosmic dance. The New Moon cycle begins with darkness, a moonless night. The moon then begins to wax, showing us more and more of the sun’s brilliance.
Ultimately, we get to see the moon in total symmetry with the sun’s rays: The full moon.
This dynamic represents our own dance with the Divine. G-d is the source of all light, the true ‘Sun’ of our universe. Our job is to reflect Divine meaning; we need to be a ‘moon’ to G-d’s ‘Sun’.
When we’re off our game, we go dark. Our world is a moonless night, lonely and vulnerable.
When we’re aligned, the world is bright. Life makes sense. We can see where we’re coming from and where we need to go. Life still has pitfalls, but we’re safe and secure. We’re connected.
We ARE the full moon.
On the [lunar-based] Jewish calendar, the 15th day of the month is always the full moon.
In the Spring, Passover is on the 15th. So is Sukkot in the Fall. Yet, the Talmud tells us that the 15th of the month of Av – tonight - is greater than them both.
Why?
There’s no deeper security than the safety which comes after vulnerability and instability.
Think of a couple experiencing their honeymoon, an unchallenged oneness. Then real life hits, so the union faces instability and challenge. The couple’s in a vulnerable place, [partially] because they haven’t each yet evolved into a healthy, interdependent unit.
By using their imbalance as an opportunity to strengthen personal weakness, the couple comes out stronger on the other side. They’re more secure because they have faced instability and grown from it.
Tisha B’av (last weekend) was a time for mourning the havoc that results from being disconnected, detached from self, each other and the Divine.
Having resolved to regain balance and reconnect, our new alignment has the safety – that special glow – that comes with personal transformation.
So our moon is especially bright.
Tonight.
Mendy wrote...
This can be seen clearly in the Talmud's enumeration of tragedies that happened through Jewish history on the 9th of Av.
The first one listed is that the Jews - who had sinned in the episode of sending spied to scout Israel - were told by G-d that they would not enter Israel right away. They would wander in the desert until that generation (those who were already above 20 and under the age of 60) would pass away in the desert and anew generation would enter the land.
The Talmud tells us that every subsequent year the Jews were in the desert, the 9 of Av was a day that people would dig graves and lie down to sleep the night. Those who woke up in the morning were going to be allowed to live at least another year.
So Tisha B'av remained a day of mourning year after year.
In the fortieth year, EVERYONE woke up. The people suspected that they had erred in calculating the day of Tisha B'av.
It was only on the 15th, when they saw the full moon, that they KNEW Tisha B'av had passed without any deaths, and they knew that the effects of their sin had been reversed and they were ready to enter the Promised Land.