Concerning חמישה עשר באב, the 15th day of the month of Av, the Gemara says at the end of Masechet Taanit, דף כ״ו עמוד ב׳, that לא היו ימים טובים לישראל כחמישה עשר באב, that there were no Yom Tovim for the Yidden like חמישה עשר באב, and the Mishnah continues, and Yom Kippur, etc., etc. And the Gemara there, on דף ל׳ עמוד ב׳, gives many reasons why חמישה עשר באב is a Yom Tov. And then the Gemara finishes off: מכאן ואילך, from now and on, which means from חמישה עשר באב and on, דמוסיף יוסיף, the one that adds will add, ודלא מוסיף, the one that doesn't add, etc., etc. And Rashi explains there that it means מכאן ואילך, מחמישה עשר באב ואילך, from חמישה עשר באב and on, דמוסיף לילות על הימים לעסוק בתורה, the one that adds the nights to the days to learn תורה, יוסיף חיים על חייו, will add life to his life. Bepashtut, the reason why you have to add learning Torah at night from חמישה עשר באב and on is as the Rashbam says in Masechet Bava Batra, דף קכ״א עמוד ב׳, because from חמישה עשר באב and on, the days become shorter and the nights become longer, and therefore now you have to start learning Torah at night. But Lichora, according to this, there is no connection between the Yom Tov of חמישה עשר באב to this din that you have to start learning more Torah at night from חמישה עשר באב and on. But since the Gemara says this after the Gemara gives the reasons for the celebration of חמישה עשר באב as a Yom Tov, there must be a connection between the Yom Tov of חמישה עשר באב and this, that you have to start learning more Torah at night. Especially according to the way that Ravenu Gershom Meor Hagolah explains in Masechet Bava Batra, that when the Gemara says מכאן ואילך דמוסיף יוסיף, that from Chamishah Asar b'Av and on, the one that adds to learning Torah will add to his life, this is the end of the reason the Gemara gives for the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar b'Av. One of the reasons the Gemara gives is that that's the day שפסקו מלכרות עצים למערכה, the day that they stopped cutting the wood for the מערכה, for the מזבח, because the wood for the מזבח has to be without worms, so it has to be very dry, and Chamishah Asar b'Av the sun becomes weaker, so the wood is not so dry anymore from then on, so you can't use the wood anymore. And after that, the Gemara says מכאן ואילך דמוסיף יוסיף, from now on, the one that adds to learning Torah will add to his life. So that Rabbeinu Gershom says that these two things go together, that while they were busy with cutting the wood for the מערכה, they were not able to learn so much תורה, היו מבטלים מתלמוד תורה, but from that day on, when they finished cutting, they made it a Yom Tov because now they're able to continue learning Torah. So from him we see certainly that there is a connection between the ענין of starting to learn more Torah at night from Chamishah Asar b'Av and on to the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar b'Av. Lichorah, what is really the connection? According to the way that Rabbeinu Gershom Me'or Hagolah says, it's not a connection in תוכן, not a connection in what it stands for, it's only a connection that now that they stopped doing one thing, they're able to learn more Torah. But it's mashma, it would make sense to say, that there is a connection in the meaning of the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar b'Av to this ענין that from then on you should start learning more Torah at night. And then another question we have to ask:

it says in Kitvei HaAri zal, in the Etz Chaim, Shaar Chag HaShavuot, other places, that the specialty of the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar b'Av is because it's the 15th day of the month, when there is מילוי הלבנה. That's the day when קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, the לבנה is full. And we know that the Yidden are compared to the לבנה, as we see it from the Gemara in Sukkah, דף כ״ט עמוד א׳, in Chullin, דף ס׳ עמוד ב׳, in Bereishit Rabbah, פרשה ו׳, ג׳, and many other places. And it also says שהם עתידים להתחדש כמותה, that the Yidden are going to be renewed like the לבנה. So therefore, when the לבנה is full, this shows on the fullness, on the שלמות of the בני ישראל. And since by the לבנה the מילוי הלבנה, the fullness of the לבנה, the full moon, comes after the ירידה, after the לבנה was small, so the ענין of the מילוי הלבנה represents the עליה that the Yidden have, the שלמות of their עליה they have after the ירידה. And since we know that the lower the ירידה is, the lower you go, and then you go higher from there, the higher you go, because we know יתרון האור מתוך החושך, that the light that comes from darkness is a stronger light, therefore the greater the darkness is, the greater the light is. So therefore the מילוי הלבנה that comes after the ירידה is very great. Now, since the מילוי הלבנה from the month of אב comes after the ירידה of before that, which is תשעה באב, which is the greatest ירידה of the year, so we understand that the עליה that happens on Chamishah Asar b'Av is the greatest עליה. And therefore חמישה עשר באב is such a great יום טוב, even greater, as it comes out from the Mishnah, than the 15th day of ניסן, which is Pesach, and the 15th day of תשרי, which is Sukkos, because the עליה after a very low ירידה is a greater עליה. Now, according to this explanation in the יום טוב of חמשה עשר באב, it comes out that the מעלה of חמשה עשר באב is only in חמשה עשר, in the 5th day, 15th day itself, cuz that's the day the moon is full. But not the days afterwards, because the days after חמשה עשר באב, that's when the לבנה starts getting smaller again, the מיעוט הלבנה, it becomes smaller and smaller from day to day. So it comes out that these two ענינים that we're saying concerning חמשה עשר באב are opposite, the two inyanim. One thing is that חמשה עשר באב is connected to the מילוי הלבנה, to the fact that it's a full moon. And the second thing, that from חמשה עשר באב and on, you have to start learning more Torah at night, it's a contradiction. Because the first inyan is only noge'a to the day of חמשה עשר, not to the days afterwards, because that's when the לבנה becomes smaller. But the second inyan, that you have to start learning more Torah at night, is noge'a to the other days too. And not only that, as the days pass, the night gets bigger, so you have to add even more to learning Torah. So it comes out that the days after חמשה עשר באב, you have this inyan even more. So this inyan in חמשה עשר באב that you have to start learning more Torah at night is important for the days later, and the days after that even more important, and further and further. But the first inyan is noge'a only to the day of חמשה עשר and not for later. So l'chorah, how do these two things fit together?

But to understand that, let's first understand, what is the meaning in this that you have to start adding more learning of Torah at night from חמשה עשר באב and on? The Rema in Yoreh Deah סימן רמ״ו סעיף כ״ג, when he speaks about the הוספה in לימוד התורה in the nights from חמשה עשר באב and on, he writes that מי שרוצה לזכות בכתרה של תורה, the one that wants to be זוכה the crown of תורה, יזהר בכל לילותיו, should be careful with all his nights, ולא יאבד אפילו אחד מהם, he shouldn't lose even one, בשינה with sleeping, באכילה with eating, ושתיה and drinking, ושיחה and speaking, וכיוצא בהן, אלא בדברי חכמה ותלמוד תורה. But he should only spend it with learning חכמה and learning תורה. And the Rema adds, taken from the Rambam in הלכות תלמוד תורה פרק ג הלכה י״ג, כי אין אדם לומד רוב חכמתו כי אם בלילה, because a person does not learn most of his חכמה but at night. And he finishes off, ויש לאדם להתחיל ללמוד בלילה מט״ו באב ואילך, and a person should start learning at night from the 15th day of אב and on. So we see from this Rema that the inyan of learning at night that starts from חמשה עשר באב and on is connected to be zocheh to the כתר, to the crown of Torah. What is the inyan in the crown of Torah? Now, in the crown of Torah, we have two inyanim. One is the part in Torah which is considered the crown of Torah, just like we find the Gemara says in מגילה כח עמוד ב that halachot of Torah are called כתר של תורה. So we see that כתר של תורה could refer to a specific part of the Torah. Then we have a second thing, the Torah becomes a crown of the person, which means it surrounds the person completely, that the person is completely immersed in learning Torah, that it surrounds him like a כתר. Now, considering the first thing in כתר של תורה, that it refers to a specific inyan within the Torah itself, not the way it surrounds the person, so it says in sefarim that כתר של תורה refers to the part of Torah which is not the inyan that you understand, but it's the idea that you have the feeling in the Torah that this is the chochmah of Hashem. Just like a כתר, a crown, is on top of the head. The head is the place of the person's understanding. The crown is beyond that, higher than that. The same thing in Torah, there is a part in Torah that you understand, you learn the Torah and you understand, and then there is an inyan in the Torah which is beyond understanding, this is the deveikut that a person gets, the connection a Yid gets when he learns Torah with the נותן התורה, with the One that gave the Torah, the connection he has to Hashem, the feeling that he is learning חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the chochmah of Hashem, and he gets דבוק to Hashem. Just like the BaCh explains in Orach Chaim סימן מ״ז, that the main thing of learning Torah, he says, so that we should be נתעצם, we should become united, our נשמה should become united בעצמות ורוחניות וקדושת מקור מוצא התורה, with the רוחניות and the kedushah of the source of the Torah. And he says if a person learns that way, then you become a היכל to the שכינה of Hashem. And he says this is the meaning of ברכת התורה, the berachah we make to thank Hashem that He gave the Torah to עם ישראל so we could be davek with the kedushah of His שכינה. And this is the reason why to be zocheh in the כתר of Torah, you have to learn Torah at night. It is not only because at night it is easier to concentrate, because it's quieter and a person is more calm, whatever it is, but it's more than that. The night is a זמן מסוגל, it's a specific time when a person is able to have the proper feeling of devekut in Hashem when he learns Torah. Because in order to have the devekut in Hashem when you learn Torah, you have to have the proper bitul, the proper nullification, you have to have the proper anavah, the proper humility. You have to feel that you are nothing and you're only a vessel through which Hashem puts His Torah through. And the night is a זמן מסוגל, an auspicious time, when a person could awaken within himself the feeling of שפלות and נמיכות הרוח a feeling of being low and thinking of himself as nothing. And that's one of the reasons why at night is a time of you make a cheshbon hanefesh by קריאת שמע על המטה, the time of Tikkun Chatzot. This is the reason why all these ענינים take place at night, because at night it's an easier time to feel the bitul. And that's what it means that from the time of Chamisha Asar Ba'av on, you should add to your learning Torah at night, it means that's when you're able to have more bitul in learning Torah, and that's why the Rama says that's the time when you're zocheh to כיתרה של תורה, to the keter of Torah, meaning to the deveikut with Hashem that comes through Torah. Now this will explain the connection between this inyan that you should add to your learning Torah at night from Chamishah Asar B'Av on, to the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar B'Av. We said before that the Yom Tov of Chamishah Asar B'Av, the way it's explained in the Kitvei HaAri Zal, is because that's when there is the מילוי הלבנה, that's when the לבנה is full, and it comes after Tishah B'Av. The kaima sihara be'ashlemuta after Tishah B'Av, that's why it's so great. Likhora, we have to understand, when we say that the אידן are compared to the לבנה, therefore they have to take a lesson from the לבנה. Likhora, mila the lesson that we take, that you have to grow just like the לבנה. From the beginning of the month it's small, and it gets bigger and bigger till it comes to the 15th day when it's full, from that we take a lesson that a איד has to always go higher and higher, מעלין בקודש, he always have to go higher and higher. But likhora, after the 15th day of the month, the לבנה starts getting smaller. What is the lesson that we take from there? Since everything has to be utilized in עבודת השם, so there must be some הוראה, some lesson from the לבנה, being that the אידן have to learn from the לבנה because they're compared to the לבנה, so there must be some lesson in this inyan also, that after the 15th day, when they are full, you have to start getting smaller and smaller. Can this, chas veshalom, mean that you have to start going lower and lower?

But the pshat is, based on what the Gemara says in Chulin דף ס ע״ב, concerning the inyan of מיעוט הירח, the fact that the לבנה is small, that Hashem said to the לבנה: לכי ומעטי את עצמך, go make yourself small, which means in the הוראה that it's supposed to be given to a איד, is the inyan of כי אתם המעט, the Yidden are few, and that means ממעטין את עצמכם, as Rashi says on the פסוק in פרשת ואתחנן, קפיטל ז, פסוק ז, and the Gemara in חולין דף פט ע״א. This is the inyan of bittul. The inyan of the לבנה being small represents the inyan of bittul. And this is the lesson we're supposed to take from the second half of the month, that after we reached the first half of the month, the 15th day, when קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, this is the full month, so then a person might come to a feeling of gaavah. He might think, look, I reached such a high madregah, I reached the point of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, so now I'm so great. So now starts the inyan of getting smaller, but not getting smaller in his avodat Hashem, but getting smaller, getting more bittul. And as the לבנה gets smaller and smaller, the lesson you take is not the inyan of doing less in avodat Hashem, adrabah, you're adding in your avodat Hashem, you're adding in your bittul. The smaller you get, the more bittul, the more anavah, the more humility you have. So you are constantly going higher and higher in your avodat Hashem, but the aliyah that you're getting in avodat Hashem, this elevation, is through the bittul. The more bittul you have, the greater you are. And that's the lesson you're supposed to take, that as great as you are, you're supposed to have more bittul and more bittul, till finally you come to the greatest level of bittul, which is the end of the month. So it comes out that when we celebrate Chamisha Asar B'Av, because that is the day that the moon is full, and that represents the idea that the Yidden are on a high madregah, especially if it comes after Tishah B'Av, it's even higher madregah, so we said before that lichorah, this is a Yom Tov that's connected only to the day of the 15th day of the month, because that's the day the moon is full. But the days after have no connection to this Yom Tov. But the truth is not so, because as we said, the inyan of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא does not stop there. That's the point when you reach a high madregah, but that same high מדרגה has to continue in a form of bitul. So when the moon gets smaller and smaller after the 15th day of the month, this is a continuation of the קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא. This is the continuation of the fact that you reached a very high מדרגה, so you have to continue in that ענין and get more bitul and more bitul, more anavah, more anavah, and not chas veshalom get ga'avah. So it comes out that the celebration of Chamisha Asar B'Av is not just a celebration because of that day, but it's something that starts on that day and continues later on, which is similar to the second ענין that we said in Chamisha Asar B'Av, the fact that from then on the days get... the days get smaller and the nights get bigger, and therefore you have to start learning more Torah at night. So we ask the question that lechora that's an ענין that starts from Chamisha Asar B'Av and continues later on, and the other ענין of Chamisha Asar B'Av of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, that the moon is full, is only on that day. But the way we explain now, it's not so. They're both not only for that day, they both start on that day and they continue later on. The ענין of learning Torah at night starts from then on and continues later, and gets more and more because the nights get longer and you have to continue more and more to learn more at night. night, and add more learning at night, etc. And this ענין of Chamisha Asar B'Av being the קיימא סיהרא באשלמותיה also continues later on after the 15th day of the month, because the לבנה gets smaller and smaller, so there is more bitul and more bitul.

And also, we see the connection between these two ענינים. Because as we explained before, the ענין of learning Torah at night that starts from Chamisha Asar B'Av is not just because you have more time to learn and it's more calm at night, etc., etc., but it's because through learning at night, you have more bitul, and therefore you could be זוכה לכתרה של תורה, you will be zocheh to be דבוק to Hashem, to connect yourself to Hashem through learning your Torah. And this is the same ענין as the celebration of Chamisha Asar B'Av because of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותיה. As we explained, the celebration of Chamisha Asar B'Av because of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותיה means not only that on that day it's a full moon and that's what you celebrate, but you have to continue this ענין through the bitul that you're supposed to get as a lesson from the other days of the לבנה is the same thing as the fact that you're supposed to start learning more Torah at night from Chamishah Asar B'Av, which is also the inyan of bitul. They both represent the inyan of anavah and the inyan of bitul. Learning Torah at night is a time when you're able to have more bitul, and you're zocheh to keter of Torah. And the inyan of celebrating Chamishah Asar B'Av because of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותיה, which means we take a lesson from the לבנה, also continues after Chamishah Asar B'Av with the lesson of bitul. So memeila, we see how both inyanim are the same. And this is the lesson we're supposed to take from this Yom Tov, the idea that when we learn Torah, we're supposed to learn with the proper bitul, with the proper anavah, and feel that we become davuk to the נותן