Tu BeAv

From Halachipedia

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 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 BeTamuz which is the gematria of כח, strength, as we hope that the incomplete names of Hashem which add up to 22[2] and is highlighted on 22nd day from Shiva Asar BeTamuz, which is Tisha B'av the day when the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed, is completed and restored on the 28th.

According to the Zohar[3], one must make Simcha on Tu BeAv because of Ilui Shechinah.[4]

Prayer

  1. Tachanun is omitted on Tu BeAv.[5]
  2. Some Ashkenazim omit "Lamenatzeach" on Tu Be'Av, while others do not.[6]

Fasting

  1. 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]
  2. One who gets married on Tu BeAv may not fast.[8]
  3. Some begin a series of forty days of fasting after Tu BeAv, corresponding to the forty days Moshe Rabbenu was on Har Sinai. Although those forty days begin with Rosh Chodesh Elul, the series is begun earlier due to the days one may not fast, such as Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh. If one wants to space out the fasts even more, he must begin from after Tisha Be'Av.[9]

Torah Learning

  1. As the nights begin to elongate, one should increase his daily Torah learning.[10]

Orlah

  1. Any seeds or saplings planted before Tu BeAv can count the following Rosh HaShanah as the completion of the first year of the Orlah count, because it takes two weeks (from Tu BeAv to Rosh Chodesh Elul) for Halacha to recognize its integration into the ground and thirty days (the month of Elul) to count as a whole year. Anything planted after Tu BeAv must count a full year ending on the next Rosh Hashanah, not the approaching one.[11]
  2. If one is unsure if the seed was planted before or after Tu BeAv, in Eretz Yisrael, he must be strict and count a full year, but in Chutz LaAretz, he may be lenient and count the forty-four days before Rosh HaShanah as the first year.[12]

Shemitta

Links

  1. Hilchot Tu Be'Av by Rav Mordechai Eliyahu

Sources

  1. ↑ Gemara Tanit 29b
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Zohar vol. 2 page 195
  4. ↑ Ben Ish Chai (Shanah Sheniah, Devarim 1)
  5. ↑ Orchot Chaim 7, Derech HaChaim 38:10, Yalkut Yosef (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 131:36, 459:26)
  6. ↑ Chayei Adam (1:32:34) quotes both views.
  7. ↑ Chayei Adam 2-3:132:2
  8. ↑ Chochmat Adam 129:2, Derech HaChaim 223:2, Yechaveh Da'at 1:81 and 4:61, Yalkut Yosef (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 455:18)
  9. ↑ Yosef Ometz (Yospa) Siman 496
  10. ↑ Ta'anit 31a, Bava Batra 121b, Yalkut Yosef (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 459:26, Yoreh De'ah 245:30). See Yosef Ometz (Yospe) Siman 495 who reconciles this with the general imperative to get a sufficient amount of sleep regularly.
  11. ↑ Yalkut Yosef (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, Orlah 3:2)
  12. ↑ Yalkut Yosef (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, Orlah 3:5)
( V | T ) The Jewish Holidays  
Elul/Tishrei
Chodesh Elul - Rosh Hashana - Aseret Yimei Teshuva - Yom Kippur - Sukkot - Shemini Aseret - Simchat Torah
Kislev/Shvat/Adar
Chanukah - Tu BiShevat - Purim - Purim Katan
Nissan/Iyar/Sivan
Pesach - Yom HaAtzmaut - Lag BaOmer - Sefirat HaOmer - Shavuot
Tammuz/Av
Three Weeks - Nine Days - Tisha BeAv - Tu BeAv
Misc.
Yom Tov - Chol HaMoed - Rosh Chodesh - Fast Days
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