the 15th of Av
The last Mishnah in Taanit (4:8) is positioned so that we end on a good note rather than with the fast of Tisha B'av. It is the famous piece on Tu B'Av:
Rabban Shimon the son of Gamliel said: There were no holidays so joyous for the Jewish People as the Fifteenth of Av and Yom HaKippurim, for on those days, daughters of Yerushalayim would go out dressed in borrowed white clothing, so as not to embarrass the one who didn't have. . . And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards. And what would they [the women] say?
"Young man, lift up your eyes and see what you are choosing for yourself. Don't look only at physical beauty - look rather at the family - 'For charm is false, and beauty is vanity. A G-d - fearing woman is the one to be praised...' ("Mishlei"/Proverbs 31:30)
They proceed to quote further further from Eshes Chayil, and the Mishna concludes with Tanna's addition of a quote from Shir HaShirim. whose explications leads up to "this is is the building of the Holy Temple that should be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen."
The Gemara (Taanis 30b-31a; Bava Bathra 121) remarks, Yom Kippur was a day of joy and celebration, for "selicha and mechila," as well as the giving of the luchos, but what happened on the 15th of Av? It goes on to list the events that Kehati refers to in his gloss of the MIshna. There is another,more detailed version of this story in the Gemara, in which the nubile girls offer more options to the boys. I hope to draw the compare/contrast at some point. But for now, let us just concentrate on this particular Mishna. The way it ends forces a connection between this event that would lead to marriages and the building of the Bais Hamikdash, which is what is signified by "yom simchas libo" [the day of his {Shlomo's} heart's gladness]. As a marriage of accord is one in which the yud and the heh combine from Ish and Isha (this was referred to in Hanoch Teller's talk, as I quoted in the previous post, though it is a well-known idea) it is meant to serve as a dwelling, so to speak for the Schina [Divine presence]. So building a marriage is building a Mikdash, which is what the Bayis ne'eman everyone wishes for the young couple in their congratulation is supposed to be about. [Hanoch Teller referred to marrying in order to build a Mishkan, but he did not reference this Mishna.
6 positive things are commemorated on the 15th of Av. Two of them are directly related to marriage, or, more specifically, permission to marry:
1. On this day, the tribes were granted permission to marry out of their tribes. In the first generation to enter the Land of Israel and to receive their portion of land, women who inherited their fathers were not allowed to marry out of their tribe, so as not to allow land belonging to one tribe to pass over to another, as we read in the recent Torah portion about the daughter of Tzlofchad. On Tu B'Av, it was clarified that this limitation was only for the generation of the daughters of Tzolfchad and would not apply to future generations.
2. The tribe of Benjamin was allowed to marry other tribes after the episode of pilegesh bagiva that prompted the rest of the Israelites to pronounce a ban on offering their daughters to the tribe from which the people responsible for the atrocity sprang. Then they realized that a whole tribe may be lost and came up with the idea for the men of Benyamin without possible wives from their own tribe could grab their brides from the women in the vineyards.
Just to fill out the list:
3. The "Desert Generation" ended.
Following the Sin of the Spies, when the people of Israel cried that they would not go to the Land of Israel, the whole generation of Israelites who had left Egypt was sentenced to die in the Desert.
Every year until the fortieth year, on the eve of the Ninth of Av, Moshe Rabeinu would command them, "Go out and dig!" They would go out of their desert camp, dig themselves graves, and sleep in them overnight. The next morning, a messenger would proclaim, "Let the living separate from the dead!" About fifteen thousand men would have died that night; the others would return to the camp for another year.
In the last, fortieth year, no one died. At first they thought that they might have counted the days wrong, and so they slept in their graves the next night too. This went on until the fifteenth of Av, when they finally realized that no more people would die, and they declared that day a day of celebration (Talmud Yerushalmi, Ta'anit 4:6).
4. The decree of guards to prevent anyone from the Kingdom of Israel from crossing over into the Kingdom of Judah and going to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem set up by Yerovam Ben Nevat was annulled this decree on Tu B'Av.
5. Those who were killed at Beitar were buried.
6. No more trees were cut down for use on the Holy Altar.
The wood used to fuel the Holy Altar was dried, since fresh logs might contain worms. After Tu B'Av, the days become shorter and the sun is no longer strong enough to dry out freshly cut logs.Because it marked the completion of the work for Hashem, it was made into a Yom Tov.
The wood used to fuel the Holy Altar was dried, since fresh logs might contain worms. After Tu B'Av, the days become shorter and the sun is no longer strong enough to dry out freshly cut logs.Because it marked the completion of the work for Hashem, it was made into a Yom Tov.
More insight into the day at these links. http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/08/there-are-more-lines-ascribed-to-girls.html
http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/08/15th-of-av-take-3-allegory-significance.htmland http://kallahmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/08/15th-of-ave-take-4-differing-accounts.html
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