Od Yishama B'arei Yehuda....

Today is Tu B'av, the fifteenth day of Av, a day associated with marriage. The Gemara (Taanit 30b) states that on this day, the tribes of Israel were permitted to marry each other (as opposed to being restricted to members of their own tribe), and the tribe of Binyamin was permitted to marry others, after the Pilegesh B'Giv'a incident, Shoftim 20).

The mishna records the tradition that single women used to go out on this day dressed in white, and men would come to meet their brides. The women would say, "Tzena ur'ena b'not Tzion b'melech Shlomo, ba'atara sheitra lo imo b'yom hatunato, uv'yom simhat libo" - Daughters of Zion, go and see King Solomon, in the crown which his mother crowned him with on the day of his wedding, and the day of the gladness of his heart (Shir Hashirim 3:11). The Gemara comments, "b'yom hatunato, ze matan Torah, uv'yom simhat libo, zeh binyan Beit Hamikdash, sheyibaneh bim'heira biyameinu" - 'The day of his wedding' refers to the giving of the Torah, and 'the day of the gladness of his heart' refers to the building of the Temple, may it be built speedily, in our days.

Why make the connection between marriage and the Temple? I would like to suggest that Tu B'av is a tikkun - a fix- for Tisha B'av, the day of mourning which took place only six days ago. On that day, the Temples were destroyed, and Jerusalem lay as a widow (Eicha 1:1). We commemorate the solitude of Jerusalem, which is compared to a widow, and the mourning, which is compared in the Kina "Eili Tzion," to a young bride mourning for her lost husband, with cessation of marriages for the three weeks leading up to Tisha B'av. Tu B'av is the tikkun for this, when we take the first step towards rebuilding ourselves by having engagements and weddings, and starting new families. Arutz Sheva reports today that 57 marriages were recorded in Jerusalem today.

The Gemara above quotes two more events that happened on Tu B'av which strengthen the relationship to Tisha B'av as a tikkun:

1) On Tisha B'av, it was declared that the generation which left Egypt would all die in the desert. The tradition has it that every year on the night of Tisha B'av, everyone would lie down in graves, and many would die there that night. In the 40th year, no one died. They were not sure if they had miscalculated the date of Tisha B'av, so they lay down the next night. They kept doing this until Tu B'av, when the full moon assured them that they had not miscalculated, and would all be able to enter into Israel.

2) Another tragedy which we commemorate on Tisha B'av is the destruction of Beitar. On Tu B'av, permission was granted to bury the bodies. In recognition of this, the blessing of hatov v'hameitiv, praising God for good things, was instituted.

Tu B'av is the day where we reverse all the tragedy of Tisha B'av. We begin to rebuild, first and foremost by marrying, and begining the holy task of creating new Jewish families. May the act of building inherent in marriage lead us to the rebuilding of the Temple in our days.

This post is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Ross Sandler, who passed away last year on Tu B'av.