Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Halocho #144 - Is Tu B'Av the festival of love?

This Shabbat is Tu B'Av, which is famous for being the day girls went to dance in the vineyards in the hope of attracting a future husband. The only other day this was done was on Yom Kippour, the day Hashem forgave the sin of the Golden Calf. The 15th of Av was the day Hashem forgave the Generation-of-the-Wilderness for the sin of the spies talking evil about the Promised Land. To quote The Book of our Heritage: "Since these 2 days were days of purification from sin, the earlier generations did not hesitate to regard them as days of festivity and dancing for the daughters of Israel... and there was no apprehension lest they breach the fence of chastity and modesty." Source: The Book of our Heritage, Vol 3 page 307 King Saul called his son Yehonathan " Ben N'avat Hamardut", son of the rebellious outgoing one, because Achinoam saw that Saul was too shy to approach any of the girls dancing, so she approached him. Source: Rashi on Shmuel-1, 20:30 - Danny Tuesday, 11 Menachem Av 5768

Please daven for a little girl - TAMAR bat NAAMA - תמר בת נעמה

4 comments:

  1. The gemara also brings down that
    tu b'av is when it became permissible for the tribes in the desert to intermarry for the first time at the end of the 40 years in the desert.

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  2. Hi Danny,
    Thank you for sending me thse Halochot. I looki forward to them. But this one I didn't understand. Is there is Halocha in here?
    I know you probably get a lot of responses, daily, but this looks an interesting topic. So if you have a minute, I wouldn't mind a reply.
    People asking you for advice should be your only problem.
    Eric

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  3. Hi Eric

    Thanks for writing in. The point of this post was to counter-balance the secular-Israeli notion that Tu B'Av is the Festival-of-Love; a "free pass" to display affection in public, etc.

    The Halocho contained is subtle; how the Rabbis frowned upon immodest behavior.

    Read this part again and you'll notice it in the last line:

    "Since these 2 days were days of purification from sin, the earlier generations did not hesitate to regard them as days of festivity and dancing for the daughters of Israel... and there was no apprehension lest they breach the fence of chastity and modesty."

    But your point is well taken; I do usually try make the Halacha more obvious.

    Have a great week,

    - Danny

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