Israel is celebrating Tu B’Av, the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Av, a Biblically-based holiday celebrating love and marriage.
The holiday, beginning on Tuesday evening and ending on Wednesday evening, is described in the Talmud (Taanit 26b) as the most joyous of the entire year. Marking the beginning of the grape harvest, the unmarried maidens of Jerusalem would go out to the vineyards at night on Tu B’Av to dance together in front of eligible bachelors. The girls would wear white clothing borrowed from neighbors so that those who came from wealthy families would not stand out and none would be embarrassed.
Commentaries explain that in the desert, the tribes did not intermarry. After the conquest and division of Canaan under Joshua, this ban was lifted on the fifteenth of Av and inter-tribal marriage was allowed.
As they danced, the ladies would call out:
“Young man, lift your eyes and choose wisely. Don’t look only at physical beauty–look rather at the family [values], ‘For charm is false, and beauty is deceitful. A God-fearing woman is the one to be praised…” (Proverbs 31:30).
Love by the numbers
On Sunday, just ahead of Tu B’Av,, the Central Bureau of Statistics released data on the relationship status of Israelis from 2021. In that year. the number of marriages was 51,605 couples in Israel, an increase of 29 percent compared to 2020.
The study also showed that the percentage of single men aged 25-29 rose from 57 percent to 65 percent and the percentage of single women in the same age group rose from 36 percent to 51 percent.
Tel Aviv was home to the most singles with 88 percent of men and nearly 81 percent of women not having a partner.
Central towns of Herzliya and Ramat Gan came just behind. The lowest number of singles was reported in the religious town of Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, with 19 percent men and 13 percent women. \
The study also showed that the percentage of single men aged 25-29 rose from 57 percent to 65 percent and the percentage of single women in the same age group rose from 36 percent to 51 percent.
Non-romantic Tu B’Av
In a non-romance-related source, Tu B’av marked the end of the time for the annual cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Temple.
In addition, the Midrash notes that after the sin of the spies, all of Israel from that generation was destined to die in the desert. Every year, the Jews would prepare graves before Tisha B’Av and lie in them. Each year on Tisha B’Av, they would lie in their graves and in the evening, they would stand up with many remaining in the grave. On the final fortieth year, everyone stood up, signaling the end of the judgment. The Children of Israel waited until the fifteenth of the month to witness the full moon to declare that the punishment had indeed ended.
It is also the day on which King Hoshea of the northern kingdom removed the sentries on the road leading to Jerusalem, allowing the ten tribes to once again have access to the Temple. It is also reputed to be the day on which the Roman occupiers permitted the burial of the victims of the massacre at Betar during the Bar Kochba rebellion. Miraculously, the bodies had not decomposed, despite exposure to the elements for over a year.
