The Mishnah says: “No days were as festive for Israel as the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur.” (Tractate Ta’anit). The 15th of Av of this year coincided with Wednesday, August 5th. Our intention was to talk about this last week, but mother nature had other plans. Better late than never! So, what’s so happy about Yom Kippur, and what is the 15th of Av?
Yom Kippur is considered “festive” because on that date G-d forgave the Israelites for their sin of the Golden Calf. G-d accepted Moses’ pleading for forgiveness on behalf of the Israelites and Moses was given the second set of tablets. Cool right?
Now, what’s this 15th of Av and why is it significant? Several significant events happened on this day throughout history – let’s talk about a few of them.
Remember the sin of the Spies? In short, this was when Moses sent out twelve men to go inspect the land of Canaan and gives them a list of things to look out for. After forty days the men come back and report on what they saw. Ten of them are punished later with death by plague. This was the reason the Israelites were ordered to wander in the desert for forty years. G-d also decreed that no one above the age of twenty would be allowed to enter the land of Israel. Every year, on the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), for forty years anyone who had reached the age of sixty that year died. On the 15th of Av of their last year in the desert, no one died – G-d’s decree was over at last.
A few weeks ago we talked about the daughters of Zelophehad (here’s a refresher). Zelophehad’s daughters were the first instance of land being passed down to daughters instead of sons. Due to this new situation, tribes prohibited daughters who inherited land from their fathers were not allowed to marry outside of their tribe. They didn’t want to lose the land. Later generations decided that the oath only had an affect on the generation that had made the oath and not subsequent generations.
Several generations later, after the story of the Concubine of Giv’ah (found in the book of Judges), the Israelites decided to not allow any of their daughters to marry any member of the tribe of Benjamin. The bad thing about this? That would eventually obliterate the tribe of Benjamin. The loophole here was, again, that the oath only affected the generation that took the oath, so later generations lifted the prohibition.
When were both of these prohibitions lifted? You guessed it – on the 15th of Av. Keeping with this theme, the day has been described as a day devoted to engagements so that Jewish families could be made! This day is more commonly known Tu B’Av and has a love-ly connotation.
Tu B’Av was one of those holidays that just got lost for a while. How does a holiday get lost? You know, I’m not sure. There just seems to be a good chunk of time (potentially centuries) where Tu B’Av wasn’t noticed on the Jewish calendar.
Things are a bit different now. Admittedly, I (Marissa) had no idea this holiday existed until a couple weeks ago when I saw a couple posts about it on Instagram. While here in America it isn’t really celebrated, it’s a whole different story in Israel. There, the holiday has kind of evolved into a day of love, kind of similar to our Valentine’s Day. Tu B’Av, like several Jewish holidays (including Passover, Sukkot, and Tu Bishvat) begins on the night between the 14th and 15th day of the Hebrew month, since this is the night of a full moon in our lunar calendar. Linking the night of a full moon with romance, love, and fertility is not uncommon in ancient cultures.
Also like our Valentine’s Day, it’s a regular work day and has no status as an official legal holiday. Tu B’Av is a day for people to show how much they care about each other. It’s also a popular day for music and dance festivals and weddings.
Have a lovely Shabbat, stay safe, and remember to wash your hands and that Black Lives Matter.
Love,
Amanda & Marissa
