Av: The Tet of Hidden Goodness
After the constriction of Tammuz, the Jewish calendar descends into what appears to be its darkest point.
The walls have been breached. The siege has tightened. The shadow of destruction hangs over Jerusalem.
Then comes Av.
At first glance, Av seems to be the month of loss. It is the month in which both Temples were destroyed, generations were scattered into exile, and the Jewish people learned what it meant to mourn not only a building, but an entire way of life.
Yet Judaism rarely stops where the eye first looks.
Beneath the ashes of Av, the sages discerned something else entirely.
The Hebrew letter associated with the month is tet (ט), the letter that first appears in the Torah in the word tov—good.
“וירא אלוקים את האור כי טוב”
“And G-d saw the light, that it was good.”
Bereishit 1:4
How can the month most associated with destruction be linked to goodness?
The answer lies within the very shape of the letter itself. Unlike many Hebrew letters that open outward, the tet curves inward, concealing what lies within. Chazal saw in this shape a profound spiritual truth: not all goodness reveals itself immediately. Some blessings enter the world hidden, waiting to emerge in their proper time.
The deeper work of Av is learning to trust what cannot yet be seen.
This theme appears throughout the month. The mazal of Av is the lion—Aryeh. The lion carries a remarkable dual symbolism. The prophets describe the forces that destroyed Jerusalem through the imagery of a lion descending upon its prey. Yet the lion is also the symbol of Yehudah, the tribe of kingship from whom Mashiach will emerge.
Av refuses to separate these realities. The same lion that appears in judgment also carries the promise of redemption.
This truth reaches its deepest expression on Tisha B’Av. The day commemorates the destruction of both Temples, the loss of Jewish sovereignty, and centuries of suffering that followed. Yet our sages taught that Mashiach is born on Tisha B’Av itself.
The teaching is not primarily historical. It is spiritual.
Redemption begins long before we recognise it.
The seed is planted while the ground still appears barren. The future is already unfolding while the present still feels broken.
If Tammuz asked how we respond when the light begins to fade, Av asks whether we can recognise the goodness concealed within the darkness itself.
Remarkably, only days after Tisha B’Av, the calendar begins to turn. Tu B’Av emerges as one of the happiest days in the Jewish year.
The Mishnah describes how the daughters of Jerusalem would go out dressed in white garments and dance among the vineyards. Young men would come seeking their future wives, and new Jewish homes would begin. Days earlier, the nation sat mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. Now young men and women stand at the threshold of building new Jewish futures.
Nowhere else in the Jewish calendar do we witness such a dramatic transformation in so short a time. Within days, mourning gives way to hope, destruction gives way to rebuilding, and exile itself begins to yield to the possibility of return.
Av teaches that faith is not merely the ability to see goodness.
Faith is the ability to trust that goodness exists even when it remains hidden.
Not every prayer is answered immediately. Not every wound heals quickly. Not every redemption arrives when we expect it.
Yet the hidden work of Hashem continues beneath the surface.
The Temple may fall, but holiness remains. The walls may crumble, but the covenant endures. The night may grow dark, but dawn is already on its way.
That is the gift of Av.
To discover that hidden within every ending lies the possibility of a beginning, and concealed within every loss is a goodness still waiting to emerge.
חודש טוב
