July 10, 2026 Calendar Codes & Mourning with Meaning
Parshat D’varim – Shabbat Chazon
Over three quarters of the dates on the Jewish Calendar – 295 of the 385 possible dates – have a pattern of three days of the week that they cannot fall on, and accordingly four days of the week that they can. The 295 dates run from the first of Adar (the first Adar, when there are two) all the way through the beginning of the following year, until and including the 29th of Marcheshvan.
From the 30th of Marcheshvan (which there is in some years but not in all) through all of Kislev (which has 30 days but sometimes only 29) and all of Tevet and Sh’vat, the three-no and four-yes pattern doesn’t exist.
The “starting point” of the pattern is called LO ADU ROSH – which means that Rosh Hashanah cannot begin on A (Alef, Sunday), D (Dalet, Wednesday), or U (Vav, Friday). It follows that Rosh Hashanah can begin on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat.
There are six variations of LO ADU, and then the pattern repeats. If the first day of Tishrei cannot fall on ADU, then the second day of Tishrei cannot be a Monday, Thursday, or Shabbat. This is coded LO B’HaZ – i.e., not on Bet (Monday), Hei (Thursday), or Zayin (Shabbat).
The third day of Tishrei cannot be a Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday. LO AGU – rearranging the days, that stands for Alef (Sunday), Gimel (Tuesday), and Vav (Friday).
The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of Tishrei are, respectively, LO B’DaZ, LO AGaH, LO B’DU, and LO G’HaZ. The 8th of Tishrei is LO ADU, just like the first of Tishrei. And so on – back to the first of Adar and forward to the 29th of Marcheshvan.
All of the above has two reasons for being included in this column.
First, it is very much in the spirit of the mitzva of “HaChodesh hazeh lachem…” – This month is yours as the first month of the year... (Sh’mot 12:2 in Parshat Bo). The twice used word lachem (meaning “for you”) in the pasuk of this mitzva of setting up the calendar implies that if this is Hashem’s gift to the Jewish People, we should know how it works. This applies to Plan A for the Calendar, when we have a Sanhedrin and witnesses come to testify to the first visibility of the lunar crescent – and also to Plan B, the mathematics-based fixed calendar when we don’t have a Sanhedrin.
Second, it is part of my long introduction to mention the days of the week that Tish’a b’Av can fall on.
Pesach’s first day is LO B’DU – not on a Monday (Bet), Wednesday (Dalet), or Friday (Vav). So too for Tish’a b’Av, with the additional fact that even though 9 Av can fall on Shabbat, when that happens, the fast is postponed to Motza’ei Shabbat – Sunday.
It follows that Tish’a b’Av is observed on Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday.
The frequency for Sunday combines 11.51% for 9 Av on Sunday itself with 28.03% for when 9 Av is Shabbat and the fast is postponed (nidcheh) to Sunday. The total frequency of the fast on Sunday is 39.54% (almost 40% – the most common occurrence).
Tuesday weighs in at 31.89% (call it 32%) and Thursday at 28.57% (call it 28%). This year, of course, Tish’a b’Av is on Thursday.
There is a link between Leil HaSeder, first night of Pesach, and the Tish’a b’Av evening. There is a match-up of days of the week based on AT-BASH. That stands for Alef/Tav and Bet/Shin – a pairing of the first and last letter of the Alef-Bet, the second and the second-to-last letters, and so on. Gimel/Reish, Dalet/Kuf... In the calendar match up, Alef (the first day of Pesach) is paired with Tish’a b’Av – Alef with Tav.
There is something poignant about the day celebrating our freedom from Egyptian bondage being paired with the day that marks destruction, exile, and oppression. Symbolically, we use an egg on the Seder Plate, and an egg is the traditional mourner’s food eaten at the pre-Tish’a b’Av meal.
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Parshat D’varim is always the Shabbat before Tish’a b’Av – with Matot and Mas’ei being combined (most often) and read separately (a rarer occurrence) to see to it that D’varim is Shabbat Chazon.
This is most appropriate because D’varim contains Moshe Rabbeinu’s telling the new generation poised on the threshold of Eretz Yisrael about the Sin of the Spies – that which caused a 40-year delay of entry to the Land. The Mishna in Taanit lists five calamities that occurred on the 9th of Av, and first on the list is the Sin of the Spies. The other four events on the list are all associated with the Churban, the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. But the sad, mournful nature of Tish’a b’Av began on the 9th of Av in the year 2448 to Creation, when the people cried for no good reason and Hashem said that we would have good reason to cry on that date in the future.
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Parshat D’varim is average size for a sedra, with 105 p’sukim (average for the Torah is a bit more than 108 p’sukim). The average for the Book of D'varim is only 87 p’sukim per sedra. Sefer D’varim has 11 sedras – five longer than Parshat D’varim and five shorter.
Parshat D’varim has two of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah – both related to judges, but with lessons for all of us. There are formal judges, but the rest of us, every so often, are in a position to judge – as parent, teacher, employer, family, or friend.
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Let’s take a look at the Book of D’varim within the whole Chumash.
Here are the numbers of sedras, p’sukim, average number of p’sukim per sedra (pps), number of mitzvot, and average number of mitzvot per sedra (mps) in each Book of the Torah:
B’reishit: 12 sedras, 1,533 p’sukim, 128 p’sukim per sedra, 3 mitzvot, 0.25 mitzvot per sedra.
Sh’mot: 11 sedras, 1,210 p’sukim, 110 pps, 111 mitzvot, 10.1 mps.
Vayikra: 10 sedras, 859 p’sukim, 86 pps, 247 mitzvot, 24.7 mps.
Bamidbar: 10 sedras, 1,288 p’sukim, 129 pps, 52 mitzvot, 5.2 mps.
D’varim: 11 sedras, 956 p’sukim, 87 pps, 200 mitzvot, 18.2 mps.
Whole Torah: 54 sedras, 5,846 p’sukim, 108.26 pps, 613 mitzvot, 11.35 mps.
Vayikra and D’varim’s sedras are the shortest; B’reishit and Bamidbar’s are the longest; Sh’mot is near average.
Vayikra and D’varim are the big “Mitzva Books.”
The whole Book of D’varim takes place in one location – Arvot Moav, and in the 37 days from the first of Sh’vat in the 40th year of wandering through the 7th of Adar, when Moshe Rabbeinu was taken from us.
To be a bit more accurate, at the end of the Torah, we are told that there was a 30-day mourning period for Moshe. So, if we add that period, the number jumps to 67 days. And I guess we will up it to 70 days, because the People, led by Yehoshua, crossed the Jordan River on the 10th of Nisan.
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The Three Weeks, a.k.a. Bein HaMeitzarim, can be described as mourning-lite. Ashkenazim do not marry or take haircuts from Shiv’a Asar b’Tamuz on. S’faradim do not have mourning practices for the first part of the Three Weeks. The Mishna lists five calamities associated with the 17th of Tamuz and five with Tish’a b’Av. Then the Mishna says: “When Av enters, joy diminishes.” It does not mention mournful practices starting from 17 Tamuz. I believe that is the reason that S’faradim do not begin Aveilut HaChurban until after Rosh Chodesh Av. Ashkenazic practice is based on later sources.
The prohibition of consuming meat and wine during the Nine Days (except for Shabbat) begins on Rosh Chodesh for Ashkenazim and the day after for S’faradim.
The higher level of mourning is connected with Shavua Shechal Bo, the week in which Tish’a b’Av occurs.
A review of the Nine Days and Tish’a b’Av can be found on my website at philotorah.co.
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The first calamity on the Tish’a b’Av list of five is the decree that the adult male population would die out during the 40 years of wandering as a result of the Sin of the Spies, Cheit HaMeraglim. And that is a major part of the beginning of Moshe’s farewell address to the people as recorded in Parshat D’varim – the sedra always read right before Tish’a b’Av.
We sometimes forget that what is recorded in the Torah is not just telling us what happened way back. Moshe Rabbeinu was speaking to us – every Jew throughout all the centuries and generations. If that were not the case, we wouldn’t read it in the Torah.
If anyone wants to view the destructions of the first and second Temples as “Once upon a time, a long time ago,” I’d respond with the statement in the Talmud Yerushalmi – “Any generation in whose time the Beit HaMikdash is not rebuilt, it is considered that it was destroyed in that very generation.”
But if anyone wants to declare the Sin of the Spies as old history, that makes my blood boil. Because the Sin of the Spies is sadly alive and well in our own time. Ever hear someone say, “Israel is nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there?” I have. And that is exactly what the meraglim said way back then. How about, “We have everything we need for a full Jewish life here in ______ (fill in your favorite Chutz LaAretz community).” I have. Cheit HaMeraglim again. How about, “It is easier to raise a son as a religious boy in New York than in Israel.” Cheit HaMeraglim.
My point: We need to do more than go through the motions of mourning the Churban. We need to do everything and anything to rectify the failings of our predecessors that resulted in the destruction of the Mikdash. That is our hishtadlus, our efforts towards hastening the Messianic Era.
Parshat D’varim doesn’t only give us more detail about the Meragim than what we see in Parshat Sh’lach. It also reveals (again) R’tzon Hashem – G-d’s Will. As in D’varim 1:8: “See, I have set the Land before you; come and possess the Land which G-d swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov, to give them and their descendants after them.”
That’s one of many p’sukim that speak of G-d’s Will. He made it clear right up front at the burning bush to Moshe – it is clear in the message that G-d told Moshe to transmit to the people, in Parshat Va’eira.
To be clear: Living in Israel is not the whole story. But it is a crucial component of a Torah way of life.
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And here’s what the Talmud Bavli says (Taanit 30b): “All who mourn for Jerusalem will merit seeing its joy. And he who does not mourn Jerusalem...”
May we properly mourn Yerushalayim and be privileged to see and rejoice in its rebuilding, bimheira v’yameinu – Amen.
