Tu BeAv
Tu Be'Av is is the fifteenth day of the month of Av. It is a day of celebration for many reasons and as a result we do not recite Tachanun it or the mincha beforehand. Chazal in fact state that it is one of the two happiest days of the year. It was the day when the Jewish people in the desert stopping dying in the plague as a result of the sin of the spies. It is was the day that the Jewish boys and girls would go out to the field to find a potential spouse to get married. It was the day that the tribes decided to make peace with Binyamin after they had a brutal civil war and almost wiped them out. It was the day that the wood that was donated during the summer for the Mizbe'ach in the Bet Hamikdash would be completed. It was the day on which the Jews were given permission to bury their dead in Beitar after the Romans massacred them and didn't let them bury their dead.[1]
Why is Tu Be'Av a Holiday?
According to the Zohar[2], one must make Simcha on Tu BeAv because of Ilui Shechinah.[3]
According to the Bnei Yisaschar all the reasons that Chazal give for Tu Be'av revolve around reconciliation and harmony, whether it is between the Jews one to another or between the Jews and Hashem. It is the correction of the sins of Tisha B'av. Also, it is the 28th day from Shiva Asar BTamuz which is the gematria of כח, strength, as we hope that the incomplete names of Hashem which add up to 22[4] and is highlighted on 22nd day from Shiva Asar BTamuz, which is Tisha B'av the day when the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed, is completed and restored on the 28th.
Prayer
Fasting
- Beit Din cannot initiate a series of fasts on Tu BeAv, but if they began already, one would have to fast on Tu BeAv according to the letter of the law. Nowadays, this does not apply. If they instituted that one should abstain from meat at a certain interval and didn't realize it would coincide with Tu BeAv, one may eat meat if he has a seudat mitzvah on that day. An individual, however, who takes this upon himself, may not eat meat even on a seudat mitzvah.[7]
- One who gets married on Tu BeAv may not fast.[8]
Links
Sources
- ↑ Gemara Tanit 29b
- ↑ Zohar vol. 2 page 195
- ↑ Ben Ish Chai (Shanah Sheniah, Devarim 1)
- ↑ The Vav (6) Key (5) from Hashem's four letter name, the Aleph (1) from Kiseh, His Chair, and the Yud (1) from Yerushalayim are all missing in the Torah until the coming of Mashiach. Together they add up to 22 (6+5+1+10). However, once the Mashiach will come we will again have these letters together with the Vav (6) from Eliyahu, which would make a complete set of 28. 28 is also associated with a complete moon, which is an analogy to the rebirth and restoration of the redemption of Klal Yisrael. Also, 28 is the miluy of the miluy of Hashem's name. See Rabbi Sultan on this topic for more connections.
- ↑ Orchot Chaim 7
- ↑ Chayei Adam (1:32:34) quotes both views.
- ↑ Chayei Adam 2-3:132:2
- ↑ Chochmat Adam 129:2
