The merciful father! What a name to call the new month that we started this week. As we start a new month, we also started a new book in the five books of the Torah, Devarim. These two new beginnings allude to a powerful message.

In Shemot (17:8), Rashi gives a parable of a young boy on his father’s back. Despite the boy being carried by his father, who picked up anything that fell, when the boy saw another man on the journey, he asked, “Do you know where my father is?” At that moment, the father threw him off his back, as if to say, it is I who have been doing everything for you and you don’t even realize it. This parable can be used to understand the month of Av and Parshat Devarim.

The beginning of Av is said to be a time that our happiness decreases, and the beginning of Devarim is a repeat of how we sinned and needed to stay in the desert for longer. Hashem did that because He needed us to learn. However, what happens after we realize that we have a father who took care of us? What happens after we start having faith and trust in Hashem (Av is an acronym for these two things, emunah and bitachon)? After Hashem throws us off his shoulders to make us realize He is here, Hashem is merciful and forgives us. He gives us the joyous day of Tu B’Av and will allow us to merit, b’ezrat Hashem, seeing Tisha B’Av become a festive day. The same with Devarim: Only after we saw and trusted in Hashem, and realized that Hashem will take care of us during the war and in Israel, could we conquer lands and be ready to go into Eretz Yisrael.

May we all be blessed with seeing that Hashem is helping us and may we not need to be thrown off His shoulders. May Mashiach come speedily and may we merit seeing this Tisha B’Av as the first of many Tisha B’Avs that will be joyous.

Shira Sedek is a passionate educator at Ramaz Middle School in New York City who loves teaching Torah and inspiring her students.