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 Tachanunon 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 grils 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 aftere 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]
Prayer
- Tachanun is omitted on Tu BeAv.[4]
- Some Ashkenazim omit "Lamnatzeach" on Tu Be'Av, while others do not.[5]
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.[6]
- One who gets married on Tu BeAv may not fast.[7]
