The 15th of Av is the holiday of love of
Israel and commemorates events revolving around national unity especially the
annulment of harsh decrees. Several stories about it are brought in the Talmud
(Ta’anis 30b-31a) among them the following:
1.
On the ninth of Av the
nation refused to enter the holy land. Because of this HaKadosh baruch Hu
decreed that the nation remain in the desert for forty years during which the
guilty generation would perish. Also G-d did not give a prophecy to Moshe that
entire time. On the ninth of Av of the fortieth year people stopped dying, but
there was concern that they had lost the count. On the fifteenth of Av they saw
the full moon and knew that the decree had passed. Therefore they declared it
as a festival.
2.
Female orphans without
brothers could only marry within their tribe, to prevent their father's
inherited land in the Land of Israel from passing on to other tribes.
Consequently the daughters of Tzelafchad could only marry within their tribe.
Because of this the rest of Israel accepted upon themselves the same restraint.
On Tu b’Av the ban was lifted.
3.
The Tribe of Benjamin was
allowed to intermarry with the other tribes after the incident of the concubine
of Givah
4.
On this the day the king of
Israel, Hosea ben Elah, removed the guards which Jeroboam ben Nevat had placed
on the roads to prevent his subjects from making pilgrimages to Jerusalem and
proclaimed, Let them go up to whichever shrine they desire.
5.
The Romans permitted burial
of those killed at Beitar during the Bar Kochba rebellion. Miraculously, the
bodies had not decomposed, despite exposure to the elements for over a year.
The Talmud continues that the fifteenth of Av was a very
happy day. On it the daughters of Israel would dress up in white and dance in
the orchards. Then the young men, who were searching for their soulmate, would
come out to see them. The pretty girls would say turn your eyes to the beauty
for a woman is nothing except beauty. The girls from distinguished families
would say think of the family for a woman is nothing but children. The ugly
ones would say take your merchandise for the sake of heaven, just adorn us with
gold jewelry.
The Mishna (Ta’anis 4:8) is nobler and refers to the
young ladies as daughters of Jerusalem. They would say, “Young man lift up your
eyes and see what you are choosing for yourself. Don’t look at ornaments,
consider the family. They would then cite the book of Proverbs saying, “Glamour
is a lie and beauty is vain, a woman with fear of G-d has substance. Give her
the fruits of her hands and her works will praise her at every chance”.
The Mishna then segues into symbolism about the relationship
between the nation of Israel and Hashem quoting the Song of Songs (3:11), “daughters
of Zion, go out and see King Solomon adorned in the crown given to him by his
mother on his wedding, the day of his happiness of heart”. The Mishna then
explains that the day of his wedding was the day the Torah was given. And the
day of his happiness of heart was the day the Temple was built. A little
differently the Zohar (Tikkunay Zohar
146a) sees it as the union between the heavenly divine presence and the
earthly divine presence with their union creating a candle that radiates
sanctity to the entire world.
The Gemara continues with the idea of a dance, but it is
a dance that the holy One blessed be He will make with the righteous in the
future in the garden of Eden. He will be in the center of their circle, and
they will point with their finger and say, “This is our G-d, we hoped to him
and He saved us. This is Hashem we hoped to him, we will be ecstatic and
celebrate His salvation”, (Isaiah 25:9)
The metaphor is the separation of the righteous from G-d
and their eventual union. The Korbon Nasanel explains that a person that is
idle can be with his wife every day, but a person who is busy learning Torah is
only with her from Shabbos to Shabbos. This is an aspect of Moshe Rabenu
separating from his wife after the receiving of the Torah. Likewise the
regiment of the priests in the Temple would leave their homes the entire week
because of their sacred duties. He explains that because of this they would keep
their strength. On the other hand, when the ignorant came to hardship and old
age, they would die of starvation. The Torah is not like this rather it gives a
person a future and hope for old age.
The Pelah Yoaytz explains that there is something about the
Torah in that one is better able to acquire it through exile and wandering.
Rabbi Yitzchak Luria has a similar theme in his poem sang by many on Shabbos
morning, “His accomplishments and greatness are multiplied many times, far
above his level, and he will take his soulmate, from whom he has been separated”.
Rabbi Ya’akov Emden infers relationships by means of
similar use of the words heart and salvation. He starts with the verse, “On the
day of his wedding and the day of his happiness of heart”. He then
brings Moshe Rabenu’s retelling of the giving of the Ten Commandments, how the
mountain was burning with a fire that reached up to the “heart of
heaven”. Next he then brings the verse, “we will be ecstatic and celebrate His salvation”,
and the verse, “and you will draw water with joy from the well springs of salvation”
(Isaiah 12:3). The word deliverance can be spelled in several ways, one of them
הישעה, has the same gematria (390) as the word
for “the divine presence” השכינה. The ideas of joy, religious union, and
redemption come through in this meditation.
He then plays with the word for dance מחול and notes that through it all of our iniquities will be
forgiven נמחלו. After which all of
the Jewish people will be reckoned as tsaddikim. And through this G-d will
dwell among them with a permanent dwelling.
לע"נ בן דוד שמואל בן נח ז"ל
נלב"ע טו באב תשס"ט.
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