As we stand at the end of the month of Av, it is kedai to look into the meaning of the name of the month, because as we know, הכל הולך אחר החיתום, everything follows the end, as the halacha is by a shtar, by a document, that the last line expresses what the whole document is about, so at the end of the month too, it is kedai to look into and understand what is the meaning of the name of the month. The מנהג ישראל is that we call this month Menachem Av, not only Av, but Menachem Av. Therefore, שבת מברכים, the Shabbos before the חודש אב, when we bless the month, we say that we are blessing the month of Menachem Av. And this is also נוגע להלכה. Not only that this is the minhag, but it's נוגע להלכה concerning the way we write the name of the month in documents. As the Get Pashut writes in Even HaEzer סימן קכ״ו סעיף קטן ל״ה, brought down in the Pischei Teshuvah in סימן קכ״ו סעיף קטן י״ב, that also when you write in a shtar the name of the month Menachem Av, it's also kasher. And not only that, even if you just write the word Menachem instead of the word Av, it's also kasher. And as he says, because הדבר מפורסם וידוע, because it's known דחודש אב קרו ליה חודש מנחם, that the month of Av is called the month of Menachem. And in the Aruch HaShulchan in there in סימן קכ״ו סעיף ט״ז he writes that by us the minhag is not just to write the word Menachem, but nevertheless he also says that if a person wrote Menachem Av, it is כשר בדיעבד, because that's how we say by ברכת החודש in all our countries, and that's how they write in letters. And the Get Pashut says even more, that יש נוהגין, some have the minhag, that in כתובות and שטרות לכתחילה they write Menachem instead of Av. But at any event, we see that the name of the month is Menachem Av. So to explain what is the meaning of Menachem Av, so first we have to understand that even though the Chazal say in ירושלמי ראש השנה פרק א׳ הלכה ב׳, in בראשית רבה פרשה מ״ח ט׳, and Tosafot in ראש השנה דף ז׳ עמוד א׳ brings it down, that שמות החדשים עלו בידם מבבל, that the names of the months came from Bavel, which means, as the מפרשים explain, as it's the Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni in פרשת בא say, and that's how it's משמע from the Ramban also, that all the names of the months are not from לשון קודש, but a לשון כשדיים, as Ibn Ezra and the Chizkuni say, or לשון פרסיים as it says in the Ramban, that means that they are not לשון קודש.

So lichorah it would come out that there is nothing that we could darshen, that we can learn out from the names of the months because they're not in לשון קודש to begin with. But the truth is that we find in many, many דרשות חז״ל that they do explain the meaning of the name of the month. For instance, in Pesikta Zutarta in פרשת בא it says that it's called Nisan, because בו נעשו ניסים לישראל, because in that month nisim, miracles were done to the Bnei Yisrael. And there is a Midrash Shemot Kol Hachadashim that drashens all the names of the months. So obviously we are able to darshen the name of the month. אי we say that the names of the months עלו עמהם מבבל, came up from Bavel, they're not names לשון קודש, so the pshat is that to call the specific months with these specific names, that came from Bavel. But the words themselves could be have meaning in לשון קודש. And certainly when it comes to the name Av, certainly we can't say that it has no meaning in לשון קודש, because the word Av definitely does have a meaning in לשון קודש. And another thing, since these are names that are used according to the Torah, the Torah uses it, many of them are even mentioned in תורה שבכתב, and many of them are mentioned in תורה שבעל פה, so since they are mentioned in the Torah, so we understand that they must have a meaning the way the word is in lashon kodesh. Certainly as we said before concerning the name Av and Menachem Av, that this is a word in lashon kodesh. And the truth is even more than that. Even if we're going to say that these are names that came from the other languages, from כשדיים or פרסיים as we said before, still we find what the Shelah says, that כשאתה רואה בדברי רז״ל שמפרשים תיבה, that when you see the חז״ל explain a word, ואומרים שכן הוא לשון יווני, and they say this is from לשון יווני, או לשונות אחרים של גוים, or that from other languages of the גוים, so the Shelah says: אל יעלה בדעתך, do not think שהתורה כתבה אלה הלשונות שאינם לשון קודש, that the תורה wrote these languages which are not לשון קודש, אלא הכי פירושו, this is the pshat: כשברא הקדוש ברוך הוא עולמו, לא היה רק לשון קודש, when Hashem created the world there was only לשון קודש. וכשבלל הקדוש ברוך הוא הלשונות בדור הפלגה, when Hashem mixed up the languages at the time of דור הפלגה, at the time of the tower, בא לשון לשון הקודש גם כן בשאר הלשונות. So lashon hakodesh got mixed into other languages. והתיבות הנ״ל הם לשון הקודש, and these words that the גמרא דרשנ'ס from other languages are originally לשון הקודש, ונבללו בלשון יווני וקפטיא ואפריקי. And they got mixed into the other languages. So originally they are lashon hakodesh. So the same thing we could apply here, too, that even if we're going to say that the names of the months are from other languages, the words are from other languages, but since they are used על פי תורה, probably they were originally lashon hakodesh, and they got mixed into other languages, and later on, when the Yidden started using them for the months, it came back to lashon hakodesh. But in any event, it comes out that we are able to darshan the names of the months even if we're going to say that they are from other languages. So we're able to darshan them according to the meaning of the words in lashon hakodesh.

Concerning our inyan that we're discussing here is the name of the month Menachem Av. So the word Av means the father. Menachem Av means we comfort the father. Who is the father that we're talking about here? אבינו שבשמים, that's our Father in heaven, that's Hashem. So when we say Menachem Av, it means that we comfort the father. So what we're saying is that we are comforting Hashem. If the name would be אב מנחם, then the pshat would be that the Av, the Father, אבינו שבשמים, is מנחם, he comforts. Whom does he comfort? He comforts the Yidden. But since the name the way it was established is Menachem Av, so the meaning of the word is that we are מנחם the אב. We comfort the father, which means the Father, Hashem, is the one that's being comforted. Similar to the לשון what we say in the bracha of נחם that we say on Tisha B'Av, so we say מנחם ציון. What does that mean? Not that Zion is the one that is מנחם, ציון is the one that comforts, but מנחם ציון means you are מנחם the Zion, that Zion is comforted. The same here: since it doesn't say אב מנחם but Menachem Av, so what it means is that we are comforting the אב. The אב, the Father, which is Hashem, is being comforted. Now what is the pshat that Hashem is being comforted? Very simple, because the Gemara says in Berachot דף ג עמוד א that Hashem says: מה לו לאב שהגלה את בניו, how bad is it to a father that chased away his children. Then it says: ואוי להם לבנים שגלו מעל שולחן אביהם. And bad is to the children who were chased away from the table of the father. But the first part is that מה לו לאב שהגלה את בניו, how bad is it to the father that chased away his children. So it comes out that Hashem Himself suffers. Hashem Himself feels bad that He had to chase us into galut. So therefore He has to be comforted, too. And this is the meaning of the word Menachem Av, that the אב, אבינו שבשמים, the Father, is being comforted.

But לכאורה we have to understand: in the name Menachem Av, as we explained, all that it stresses is the nechama that Hashem gets. And the nechama that Yidden are supposed to get, who are the children, it's not mentioned at all. And still, this is the name of the month the way it's called by all the Yidden. It means that all the Yidden only mention the concept that Hashem is being comforted and nothing about the Yidden being comforted. So לכאורה we have to understand: if we would be talking only about צדיקים גדולים, great tzadikim, that their avodah is only, as we would call it, as it says in sefarim, לצורך גבוה, only for the sake of Hashem, and they don't care about themselves at all, then we could understand that the whole ענין of galus the way they see it is only the fact that Hashem is in galus, the galus hashchinah. The fact that they themselves are in galus, that doesn't bother them at all, because they don't care about themselves at all. They only care about Hashem and about the Shechinah. So therefore, by them we could understand that what is the whole idea of the nechamah of אב? The nechamah is that Hashem should be comforted, that there should be no more galus hashchinah. Even by those Yidden who are not in that madregah that only care about Hashem and don't care about themselves at all, but still, if they are in a madregah that they care a lot about Hashem, which means that they care about Hashem more than they care about themselves, so we could also understand that by them the whole idea of the nechamah is that Hashem should be נתנחם, which really means that all they care about is the רוחניות'דיקע part of the galus rather than the גשמיות'דיקע part of galus. We know that when the Yidden are in galus, there are two parts: there's the גשמיות'דיקע part in galus, that the Yidden are במצור ובשביה, the Yidden have tzaros and problems, they're not in their own homeland, and because of the galus, there is problems of getting parnasah, and there are all kinds of tzaros and גזירות and שמדות that come through the galus. That's the גשמיות'דיקע part of the galus. Then you have the רוחניות'דיקע part of the galus, that when the Yidden were in Eretz Yisrael and we had the Beis Hamikdash, Elokus was בגילוי, Godliness was בגילוי, and the Yidden felt closer to Hashem, and the Yidden were able to feel batel to Hashem, given over to Hashem, as we say in the נוסח התפלה, in the Mussaf of Yom Tov, that מפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו, that because of our sins we were chased out of our land, and then we say because of that, אין אנו יכולים לעלות ולראות ולהשתחוות לפניך, and now we cannot go up, and we cannot be seen and see, and we cannot bow down to You, because we have no Beis Hamikdash. And the question that's asked is milah when we say we cannot go up now, we cannot see, is because we have no Beis Hamikdash, so we can't go. But when we say we cannot bow down, why can't we bow down? We could bow down wherever we are, we could bow down to Hashem. And the answer is, bowing down doesn't just mean a physical act. Bowing down expresses a level of bitul that a Yid has to Hashem. When a person bows down, what does he do? He bends his head down very low in front of the person or the thing that he bows down. What does that show? That shows that he is mevatel, he gives up his head, which is his seichel, to the one that he is bowing down to. So, this is only an expression of bitul. So, a person could physically bow down nowadays, too, but the level of bitul to Elokus that a Yid had then, that a person cannot have now. And that's why we say now we cannot go up ולהשתחוות. And that is the רוחניות'דיקע part of galus. So, if a person cares more about ruchniyus than about the gashmiyus, then by him we were able to say that what is the main part of the galus? The fact that Elokus, Godliness is in galus, that the ruchniyus is in galus. And therefore, by him, what is the main nechamah that a Yid is supposed to get for the galus? The nechamah is that the ruchniyus should not be in galus anymore, which means that the Shechinah should not be in galus anymore. And therefore we say Menachem Av, that you have to be Menachem the Av, the Av, the Father, Hashem, which is the Godliness has to get the nechama, has to be comforted. But this is only for those people who care mainly about ruchniyut. But there are a lot of people who care about gashmiyut, too, and care about gashmiyut a lot. So lekhora by them, why is there nothing that mentions the nechama that we will get, why only mention the nechama that Hashem gets?

But be'emet, we have a similar question concerning another inyan. Concerning the inyan of tefillah, of davenen, the Maggid of Mezeritch in his Sefer Or Torah in the beginning of Parashat Vayigash says, that when the חז״ל say in the beginning of the fifth perek of Berakhot, that אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש, a person should not start davenen only if he has כובד ראש, which means, as Rashi says, הכנעה ושפלות, he has the bitul to Hashem. So the Maggid of Mezeritch says that there's another pshat in אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש. That when a person goes to daven, he should not daven because of his own things that are missing, because of his own need, but he should daven because of the חסרון in the רישא דכל רישין, because of what the head of all heads, which is Hashem, is missing. And that is the meaning אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש, shouldn't start davenen but for the כובד of the ראש, for the heaviness of the head, which is Hashem, because Hashem is missing. And he says there, that אף שמבקש בקשת צרכי עצמו, even when you're asking for your own needs, יהא כוונתו שלא יחסר הדבר למעלה חס ושלום, his כוונה should be that there should be nothing missing above. And he says כי הנשמה היא חלק אלוקי ממעל, because the neshamah is part of השם, והיא אבר מאברי השכינה, it's a limb of the limbs of the שכינה, וזהו עיקר הבקשה, that is the main בקשה that you should ask for, שימלא ויושפע לעילא, that it should be fulfilled and מושפע למעלה, which means that the main thing you have to care about is Hashem. So לכאורה here, the question is even stronger. We know that in halacha, the main chiyuv of davenen is מדאורייתא, that when a person has something that he needs, that he feels he needs, he has to daven to Hashem to ask for it. As the Rambam says, in הלכות תפילה פרק א׳ הלכה ב׳, that the chiyuv of the מצוה כך הוא, this is the chiyuv of the מצות תפילה: ששואל צרכיו שהוא צריך להם בבקשה ובתחינה, that you have to ask, with a בקשה, with a begging, of Hashem the things that you need. So therefore, if a person doesn't care about his own needs, he only cares about Hashem, so to him what are his needs? The fact that it's missing in the שכינה, that there is גלות השכינה, that's why he davens for גלות השכינה. But most people who care about their own needs, so by most people the chiyuv of davenen is that they should daven for their own needs. So how could the Mezeritcher Maggid say that the דין is for everybody, that אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש means that you only have to daven about the חסרון in the שכינה, the גלות השכינה, and not care about yourself? But על פי הלכה, the chiyuv of תפילה is that you have to daven for your own צרכים. So therefore, we must say that באמת these two things are not a contradiction, because it's possible that when a person davens for his own needs, this itself should be for the fulfillment of the חסרון in the שכינה. Because why does really a person need all his physical things? Why does he need his health, let's say, why does he need money? It's all so he should be able to serve Hashem, because אני נבראתי לשמש את קוני. A Yid is supposed to say, I was created to serve my Master, that's the whole reason he was created. So the whole reason why he needs health, and why he needs money, and he needs all the גשמיות'דיקע things, is only in order to be able to serve Hashem. And if he's missing it, and he's not able to serve Hashem, so not that he is missing, so then כביכול Hashem is missing. So therefore, even when a person to feel his own needs, and he davens for them, what he really should think about, that he's davening for them because if that won't be, he won't be able to serve Hashem, and therefore Hashem will be missing. Ay, you might ask, not everyone feels that way. There are some people who care about their own needs because they feel they need it, not because they feel that this will help them in Avodas Hashem. But b'emes, even if a person doesn't feel that way, that is the truth. Essentially, that is the truth. And therefore בפנימיות, this is what's hidden in every person's tefillah. So therefore, even when a person davens, and in his mind he thinks that he's davening for his health because he wants to be healthy, he's davening for parnasah because he wants parnasah, but essentially, what's hidden in it is the truth. The truth is that why does he need parnasah, why does he need health and everything else, is so he should be able to serve Hashem. As the pshat in the מאמר חז״ל that a person should always do תורה ומצוות שלא לשמה, מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה, because through doing שלא לשמה he will come to לשמה. So the pshat is מתוך שלא לשמה, the תוך, the inner part, the hidden part of the שלא לשמה is the לשמה. Even if he doesn't know about it, but because every single ייד בפנימיות באמת essentially wants to do what's right, so every single Yid, when he asks for his own needs, essentially he is asking for the needs of the שכינה. He's asking for his own needs so he should be able to serve Hashem, so it will fulfill the רצון of Hashem, so the שכינה will not be missing anything. So this is what the Maggid of Mezeritch meant that a person davens for the חסרון of the שכינה. And the same applies concerning the ענין of Menachem Av, that even those people who feel the trouble of the גלות not because of the רוחניותדיקע part, but because of the גשמיותדיקע part, and they want the comfort because of the gashmiyus, which means they want the geulah so they won't have the גלות בגשמיות, but essentially what's hidden in what they want is really that there should come the geulah so there will be no גלות השכינה, there will be no גלות ברוחניות. And that's why the name of the month is Menachem Av, because the main nekudah by everybody is that the אב, the Father, which is Hashem, should be comforted, there should be no more גלות השכינה.