August Bulltin Ref1

From Our Rabbi…

At a recent Torah study session, we had a brief chat about the naming of special days. One person pointed out that most holidays or commemorations named with a date were negative events. Jewish examples include the 17^th of Tammuz (commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple) and Tisha B’Av (the 9^th of Av, commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and a number of later tragedies). On the secular calendar, think of 9/11, January 6, October 7…

However, during that same conversation, it was pointed out that the Jewish calendar doesn’t reserve date names solely for negative associations. One example you may be familiar with is Tu BiShvat – literally the 15^th of Sh’vat – when we mark the new year of the trees and enjoy a seder meal of fruits and nuts. And on August 19, we mark the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Av – the 15^th of Av – the Jewish holiday of love.

The holiday is described in the Talmud (Taanit 30b) as one of the two happiest days of the Jewish year. The other day, Yom Kippur, is happy due to its association with pardon and forgiveness, but the Rabbis give multiple explanations for Tu B’Av’s importance. They cite Tu B’Av as a day when members of different tribes could intermarry, despite the ruling in Num. 36 that the daughters of Tzelophechad could only inherit land by marrying within their tribe. It’s the day when the Israelites were once again allowed to marry the tribe of Benjamin, which had been cut off after a disturbing incident that sparked a brutal intertribal war (see Judges 19-21). And on this same day, the Rabbis teach, the decree of wandering in the desert until the generation that left Egypt died out was finally fulfilled – marking a stop to the deaths and a return of Moses’ direct conversations with the Eternal.

On the Jewish calendar, we are in arguably the saddest time of the year:  the Three Weeks that span from the 17^th of Tammuz to the 9^th of Av, from destruction to destruction. Those capstone days are marked by communal fasting, mourning, and lamentation. But we are not expected to stay there. We spend the next seven weeks in a period of consolation. Just six days after the depths of Tisha B’Av, we arrive at the positive date-named holiday of Tu B’Av:  a day of love and joy; a day of transcending borders; a day when we repair broken relationships and make peace with our once-enemies; a day of life and connection to the Divine.

Unfortunately, international wars and personal tragedies don’t always fit neatly into a calendar grid, or limit themselves to specific dates or three-week spans, but our calendar reminds us that even when things seem bleak, a turning point will come. Hope, peace, life, and relationship are waiting for us just around the corner. So, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Take comfort, take comfort” (40:1) and make sure to celebrate Tu B’Av.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Weisbrot