Rabbi 360

This past Shabbat was also a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar: Tu B’Av, so named because of its date, the “fifteenth of [the month of] Av.” Not found in the Torah, it is a later addition to the Jewish calendar, but so seemingly obscure that the rabbis in the Talmud do not have a clear understanding as to why it is a holiday.

In the Talmud, tractate Ta’anit, mention is made of the day, and then various rabbis give reasons for its celebration. One explanation, and the one that has given this day its contemporary meaning, is that it is a day in which people seeking mates would dress in white (to symbolize equality and so people’s social standing can not be distinguished by their dress) and go out into the fields to seek a romantic partner. Thus Tu B’Av in contemporary Judaism becomes a “Jewish Valentine’s Day,” a day to celebrate love and relationship.

There are other reasons given, and one that feels particularly relevant is that Tu B’Av, according to the rabbis, is the day the deaths in the wilderness during the 40 years of wandering ended. To fully understand this reason, we need to first go back to the Torah story of the spies.

In that story, in the Book of Numbers, the Israelites are close to the Promised Land after leaving Egyptian slavery and receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. In anticipation of their entry, God tells Moses to send out 12 scouts (one for each tribe) to check out the land and report back. They all come back with a good report—the land is good and fertile—but ten of the scouts feel that the task of moving forward and settling the land would be too difficult. The other two support moving forward. The fearful Israelites side with the ten, chaos and dissention ensue, and God and Moses get very upset.

God then institutes a decree: the people will wander in the desert for 40 years. Remember, even though we talk about that journey often, it was not the original plan. It was supposed to be a short(er) and straight(er) trip to the Promised Land. Now the people are destined to travel much longer.

On the one hand, this is a punishment. On the other, it is a practical step. Forty years in biblical time is a generation, and part of the reason explicitly stated is that over the course of that 40 years everyone who was of the generation who left Egypt would die off, and their children and grandchildren would move forward. God is convinced (perhaps correctly) that the generation who left Egypt can not be the one to settle the land.

While the specifics of this generation shift are not mentioned in the Torah, the ancient midrash (commentary) offers a striking story:

Rabbi Levi said: Every eve of the ninth of Av, Moses would dispatch a herald to the entire camp, saying: ‘Go out and dig,’ and they would go out and dig graves and sleep in them. In the morning, he would dispatch a herald saying: ‘Rise and separate the dead from the living,’ and they would stand and take themselves out. Fifteen thousand and more were subtracted, for a total of six hundred thousand. (Eicha Rabbah, Petichta 33)

In other words, each year on the ninth of Av, 15,000 people would die. Over the course of 40 years, this adds up to 600,000, which is the Torah’s figure for the number of people who left Egypt.

[This midrash also gives us another meaning behind the observance of Tisha B’Av, which fell last week. That day, called the “saddest day on the Jewish calendar,” is a day of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem and other calamaties that befell the Jewish people. Thus another sad occasion is tied to this date.]

The midrash continues, and brings us back to the meaning behind Tu B’Av:

In the fortieth year, the last one, they did so and found themselves intact. They said: It appears that we were mistaken in our calculation, and they did the same on the tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth. When the moon was full, they said: It appears that the Holy Blessed One abrogated the decree from upon us, and they then rendered it a holiday. (Ibid.)

So it was on Tu B’Av, according to this legend, that the deaths in the wilderness ended. Which means, the 40 years of wandering had also come to an end.

One could imagine the relief felt by that generation knowing that the next stage of the journey was now upon them. That all of the hardship, and difficulty, and conflict, and loss, and fear, and grief that defined the past 40 years was now over, and they were ready to move forward into potential, opportunity, stability, safety, and hope. And the joy that they felt realizing that the way things have been are not the way things must be, and that they can create a new and better future for the community and everyone who is in it.

Which is why Tu B’Av is so potent this year. For we are living through a time of particular hardship, difficulty, conflict, loss, fear, and grief. And this midrash reminds us that this too shall pass. Maybe not easily, maybe not without our hard work, but just like the Israelites’, our time of wandering in the desert will end. The world as it is now is not the way it must be.

Yes, I do like the idea of a “Jewish Valentine’s Day,” so let’s celebrate intimate and personal love on this day. (I know it has technically passed, but if you have a sweetheart you can do something nice for them.) And, let us also raise up this other reason, and look to Tu B’Av as a celebration of communal hope. This terrible period in our history will end, and we will move forward into a different future.