Tu B'Av
Tu B’Av, the 15th Day of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). It has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love.
Why is Tu B'Av the "Jewish day of Love"?
Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 26b:
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days as joyous for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur, as on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothes, which each woman borrowed from another. Why were they borrowed? They did this so as not to embarrass one who did not have her own white garments. And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say? Young man, please lift up your eyes and see what you choose for yourself for a wife.
In rabbinic tradition, Tu B’Av also marks a number of miraculous events relating to marriage, union, and rebirth—particularly, that this was the day on which the Israelites were redeemed from wandering in the wilderness and allowed to enter the land of Israel.
Tu B’Av is an unlikely day of joy, coming as it does in a season of sadness. In its essence, Tu B’Av is a hinge between the time of mourning and the time of gladness, between the pathos of reaping and the celebration of harvest. It is a door opening from death back into life. Tu B’Av is a day of rebirth, when the cut-down stem yields the ripe, sweet fruit.
by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.
