Concerning the 20th day of the month of Av, the Mishnah says in מסכת Ta'anit, דף כ״ו עמוד א׳, that כ׳ אב, the 20th day of Av, was a Yom Tov by a certain משפחה, by a certain family, because that was the day that they used their wood on the מזבח in the בית המקדש. There was a time when in the לשכה in the בית המקדש, they didn't have enough wood. So certain families donated wood for the מזבח. When their wood was finished, so then another family brought the wood. So from that they were metaken, that on that day that that family brought the wood, every year on that same day they should use the wood from that family, even at a time when there was wood in the לשכה, when they had enough wood in the בית המקדש. And that day was a Yom Tov for that family. So on the 20th day of Av, a certain family donated wood and it was their Yom Tov. Which family was that? So there in the Gemara, we find two opinions. It says רב מאיר אומר, רב מאיר says, הן הן בני דוד בן יהודה, that these were the children from David ben Yehuda, which means David HaMelech, that this was the family, the descendants of David HaMelech. They were the ones that donated the wood on the 20th day of Av. Rav Yosi says, הן הן בני יואב בן צרויה, that these were the children of Yoav ben Tzeruya, the general of David HaMelech. They were the descendants of Yoav. L'chorah, how is there a possibility to have a מחלוקת במציאות? In a fact? We find that usually there is no argument concerning a מציאות, concerning a fact. The arguments in Gemara are usually in a הלכה, but in a מציאות, we don't find an argument. Plus we know what the Gemara says in Eruvin דף י״ג עמוד ב׳ and in Gittin דף ו׳ עמוד ב׳, that אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים. Whenever we find an argument in Gemara, so both opinions are the words of Hashem. So in this case, how can we say that both opinions are the words of Hashem? Was it the family of David ben Yehuda or was it the family of Yoav ben Tzeruya? The answer is very simple: Because both families were מתחתן, both families intermarried, and the descendants of both families were the ones that brought the korban, the wood, on the 20th day of Av. So then what is the machloket between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yosi? The machloket is, which zechut was stronger that that was the reason why this family brought the wood on the 20th of Av? Rabbi Meir holds that the zechut of David HaMelech was the reason that brought about, awakened within them, the will, the ratzon, to bring the wood on the 20th of Av. And Rabbi Yosi holds that the zechut of Yoav ben Tzeruyah, that is the thing that awakened within them and brought out within them the fact that they brought the wood on the 20th of Av. לכאורה, what is so special about bringing the wood on the 20th of Av that we're looking for a reason why they did it? Since we explained the machloket is which zechut caused them to bring this nedavah on the 20th of Av, obviously there must be something special here, that for that you have to have a special zechut. What's so special about bringing a nedavah of wood on the 20th of Av?

But the pshat is as follows: The Gemara says in Ta'anit דף ל״א עמוד א׳, מחמשה עשר באב ואילך תשש כחה של חמה. From the 15th day of Av and on, the strength of the of the sun weakens. ולא היו כורתין עצים למערכה לפי שאינם יבשים, and they wouldn't cut anymore wood for the מערכה, for the מזבח, because they are not dry. The din is that wood that has worms in it is pasul for the מזבח. And therefore, when the koach of the חמה, the strength of the sun, is weak, so then the wood is not so dry, so we could be chosheish that maybe there are worms in the wood. And therefore, from חמשה עשר באב and on, you couldn't cut anymore wood for the מערכה. The first ones that gave a nedavah of wood after חמשה עשר באב was the ones that gave on the 20th of Av. In order to have wood on the 20th of Av to give to the לשכה in the Beit HaMikdash, the wood had to be cut before, because if it was cut on that day, it was pasul, because you couldn't cut after חמשה עשר באב. So it comes out that when they gave the wood to the Beit HaMikdash, it was already a time when you couldn't get any new wood. You couldn't cut any wood now. And they gave away the wood that was so precious. Being that you couldn't get it anymore, it was very precious. And nevertheless, they gave it away. And more than that, in order to be able to give a lot of wood on the 20th of Av, you had to think about it a lot before, you have to investigate and you have to prepare prepared before. Because if you wouldn't think about it before, you would decide to do it the last few days, then you couldn't cut any more wood. So they had to think about it a time before. And that's why the nedavah of the wood of this day, of the 20th of Av, and the same would probably apply to those that gave wood afterwards, the 20th of Elul, etc., etc., has a special חשיבות which those that gave the wood before didn't have. Because those that gave the wood before, they gave it at a time when you still could get it, you could go out and cut it, pashut, and they didn't have to prepare it a lot of time before, because they could prepare it at the time when they're giving, because that day you still could cut wood. But these families who gave the wood on the 20th of Av, and the same with those that gave later, so two things: first of all, as we said before, they gave it at a time when it was more precious because you couldn't get it, and second of all, they had to think about it a long time before to prepare enough wood that they should have it ready on the 20th of Av. And more than that, what did they do with the wood? The wood itself was not the korban. They brought it to the Beis Hamikdash, and it was used on the מערכה, on the mizbeach, when they were מקריב קרבנות. The korban itself that they burned on this wood was not their korban. And lav davka that it was only for the קרבן ציבור, because the קרבן ציבור, the public korban, every Yid has a chelek in it, has a part in it. So these people had a part in the קרבן ציבור. But this wood was not only used for the קרבן ציבור. It was used for all the korbanot. So it was used for korbanot of other Yidden. So this shows what they did. They prepared wood before, they gave it away at a time when you couldn't get it, for what? So that other Yidden should have the wood to be able to bring their korbanot. And even more than that, amongst the korbanot that other Yidden brought were chata'ot and ashamot. These are korbanot brought by בעלי עבירה, people who did aveirot, and they brought it as a kaparah for their aveirot. And still these families brought the wood at a time when you couldn't get it and prepared it before so that people who did aveirot should be able to get a kaparah for their aveirot. And even more than that, when they gave it, they didn't give it because there was no choice. They gave it b'simchah. As we said that this day became their Yom Tov, they made a יום שמחה out of it, it was a special Yom Tov for the family. So they did all this b'simchah. So this is a very, very special thing. And therefore there's a machloket between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yose which zechut was it that brought about that these people should do this, should care so much about other people and give away a precious thing and prepare it before, even for such people who are בעלי עבירה, who have to get a kaparah for their aveirah through a חטאת or an אשם. And the machloket is whether it was the zechut of David Hamelech or the zechut of Yoav ben Tzeruyah. What is the difference between David Hamelech and Yoav ben Tzeruyah?

So the Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף מ\"ט עמוד א': \"אלמלא דוד, לא עשה יואב מלחמה.\" If not for David, Yoav would never have won the war. \"ואלמלא יואב, לא עסק דוד בתורה.\" And if not for Yoav, David wouldn't have been able to learn Torah. Yoav was the general, so he went out to fight the war; David stayed home and learned Torah. Now if Yoav wouldn't go fight the war, then David Hamelech couldn't sit peacefully and learn Torah. On the other hand, if David wouldn't sit and learn Torah, then Yoav would never have won the war, because he had to have the zechut of learning Torah in order to win the war. And the pshat is even deeper. Not only because there was a zechut of David learning Torah that Yoav won the war, but because David was able to learn Torah on the count of Yoav, so Yoav had a chelek in David's learning, which means that when David learned Torah, part of the zechut was actually Yoav's. But at any event, it comes out that the main thing of David was learning Torah; the main thing of Yoav was to go out and to fight the battles, to fight the war. What is the difference actually between these two ענינים? The difference is like this: they both had mesirat nefesh. They both gave themselves up, they sacrificed their lives, they both had the proper bitul, the proper self-nullification to Hashem. But the difference was concerning which inyan they used their mesirat nefesh. David Hamelech used his mesirat nefesh in the inyan of learning Torah. He learned Torah with proper mesirat nefesh, as we see it from what the Gemara says in סנהדרין דף צ\"ג עמוד ב', that when the pasuk says concerning David, \"וה' עמו\", so the Gemara says it means \"שהלכה כמותו\", the halacha was like him. Why was the halacha like David Hamelech? Because David learned Torah in a way that he felt in his learning the נותן התורה. He was completely batel, given over to the נותן התורה, to the one that gave the Torah, which is Hashem, so he felt the proper bitul when he learned Torah. And therefore he was זוכה that the halacha was always like David, as a says in Sefer HaBahir that דוד היה מחבר תורה שלמעלה בהקדוש ברוך הוא, that David connected, combined the Torah with Hashem, which means he learned Torah in such a way, not only that he felt that this was a good חכמה, but he felt in the Torah the קדושת התורה. So David used his mesirat nefesh for learning Torah. The bitul and the mesirat nefesh of Yoav expressed itself in the fact that he went out to fight with the enemies of the Bnei Yisrael. He went out to change the world, so to speak. He went out to get rid of those that want to stop the Yidden from doing what they're supposed to do. So he went out into the world to make the world recognize the truth, to fight away, to get rid of the enemies, and the world should see the truth. So his bitul was in the inyan of bringing kedushah into the world. So it comes out that Dovid Hamelech's main avodah was in the inyan of learning Torah, staying in his own place and learning Torah and becoming davuk to Hashem, and Yoav's inyan was going out into the world and bringing kedushah into the world, and anything that's against kedushah to get rid of it. The truth is that because there is התכללות, there is a combination of all kinds of avodot, therefore each one helped out the others. We don't say that Dovid only did that and Yoav only did that. Because Dovid learned Torah, he had a chelek in this avodah of Yoav. Because Yoav fought the war and made it possible for Dovid to learn Torah, he had a chelek in Dovid's Torah. But specifically each one had his avodah. Dovid's avodah was to stay in his own place, to be isolated from the world, and to reach higher madregot through deve kut in Hashem through learning Torah, and Yoav's avodah was to go out into the world and see that the world should be a proper place. And that is the machloket in the Gemara. Since this inyan of bringing the nedavah of the wood on the twentieth of Av was a very special thing as we explained before, there must have been a very special zechut that they had in order to do this. And the machloket is which of these two zechutot is greater. One opinion is that the zechut of David is greater, which means the zechut of becoming דבוק בהשם and going higher and higher in his דבקות בהשם, that is the greater avodah and that is the zechut that brought about that they should bring this נדבה, and the other opinion is that it was the zechut of Yoav that did it, because this idea of going out and seeing that the world is a proper place, that is a greater zechut.

And it's interesting that the machloket here is between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yosei. We know that Rabbi Meir is connected to the word אור, which means light, and the Gemara says also his name was Rabbi Nehorai, Nehora also means light. When there is light, you could see clearly. There is no העלם, there is no cover. And that's why it says in Midrash Rabbah, Bereshit Rabbah פרשה כ' י\\"ב, that in תורתו של רב מאיר they found that the word כתנות אור was written with an אלף. When it says that Hashem made כתנות עור to אדם and חוה, so עור is with an עין, עור means skin, but in his ספר תורה it said אור with an אלף, because by him everything was אור, everything was light, everything shined, he saw the truth in everything, everything was clear, there was no העלם. Like this, we know the world covers up on the truth. The world, which is עולם, comes from the word העלם, העלם means cover up. The truth is that there is nothing but Hashem, the world covers up on that. Rabbi Meir was such a high מדרגה that by him everything was אור, everything shined, everything was light, everything was clear. Rabbi Yosei, we know that it says in Zohar the third חלק, דף רכ״ג עמוד א', and it's also מרומז in the Gemara Sanhedrin דף נ\\"ו עמוד א', the word Yossi is the gematria Elokim. The word Yossi has the same gematria, the same numerical value, as the Shem Elokim, the name of Hashem Elokim. And we know that Elokim represents Hashem the way He is hidden in the world, in the nature, and that's why Elokim is also בגימטריא הטבע, which is the nature. So Rav Yossi, which is gematria Elokim and בגימטריא הטבע, he represents the concept of kedusha the way it affects the world which is מעלים ומסתיר, which covers up on the truth of Hashem. And that's why Rav Meir says that whose zechut was it, it was the zechut of David HaMelech. Because in the level of Rav Meir, there was no need to bring kedusha into the olam, into the world, and see that the world should be a proper place, because to him lechatchila there was no העלם והסתר, there was no cover up, to him everything was light. So to him the main thing is to become davek in Hashem and go higher and higher into the devekut to Hashem. There is no inyan of fighting with enemies because the way he looked at it, there were no enemies, there was nothing else, everything was clear, everything was or. So therefore he says that the main zechut is the zechut of David HaMelech, and therefore he says, what zechut caused them to bring the נדבה of the עצים on the twenty tieth of Av, which is a great thing, was the zechut of David HaMelech. But R'' Yossi and his inyan, his name represents the fact that you have to bring kedusha into the olam, he said that which avoda is greater? The avoda of Yoav, which was working with the world to see that the world is a proper place, that's why he says whose zechut brought about that they should bring the nedavah on the twentieth of Av was the zechut of Yoav ben Tzeruyah.

Now, when the day comes around, the twentieth of Av comes around, and everything that used to happen before is נזכר ונעשה, happens again, so we have to take a lesson the twentieth of Av of what took place on the twentieth of then. So what is the lesson we're supposed to take here? That the lesson is that when a person has something that could help somebody else, and that other person cannot get it, anywhere in the world he can't get, but you have it, you have to be ready to give it to him. This is as how far ahavat Yisrael is supposed to go, to give away something which is very precious, and something that no one else could get, still give it away to help somebody else. And even if that other person is a person that was nichshal in a chet, a person that did an aveirah, nevertheless you have to help him. And even if you're not going to get anything out of it, like in this case, it was the korban of other Yidden, and he had no chelek in it, nevertheless, they were ready to give it away, and that's the lesson we're supposed to take. And you're supposed to do it with simchah, you're supposed to do it with joy, not just do it because you have no choice, beleit breirah. You're supposed to do it with simchah like they did it, that they did it besimchah, they made a Yom Tov out of it. And in order to be able to do this, you have to have the mesirut nefesh. Just like we said here, that the zechut that they were able to do this was because of the mesirut nefesh of their great-great-grandparents, whether it was the mesirut nefesh of David HaMelech for learning Torah and going higher and higher in his deveikut to Hashem, or it was the mesirut nefesh of Yoav, who went out into the world to see that the world should be a proper place, but it came through mesirut nefesh. And through the mesirut nefesh of the grandparents, the grandchildren had the zechut of having ahavat Yisrael in such a strong way. So if we want our children and great-grandchildren to have ahavat Yisrael in such a way, we have to show our mesirut nefesh in serving Hashem. And if we have that mesirut nefesh, we will have the proper ahavat Yisrael, and our great-grandchildren will have the proper ahavat Yisrael, especially when we're coming not far away from Tishah B'Av, when the חורבן בית המקדש came because of sinat chinam, because there was hatred amongst the Yidden, so if we have ahavat Yisrael, this will bring to the rebuilding of the third בית המקדש.