The festive events of the fifteenth of Av are the counterparts to the tragic events of the month of Av. It is the greatest of the festivals because it is the ascent which follows, and is the purpose of, the awesome descent of Tishah BeAv.

The mishnah states:[1] "There never were greater festivals in Israel than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur." The Talmud[2] gives several reasons why the fifteenth of Av is a festival surpassing all others.[3]

Reasons For Festival

1. "It is the day on which the tribes were allowed to come together." Formerly, because of inheritance laws, a woman who inherited her father's property was prohibited from marrying outside her tribe. On the fifteenth of Av this was abolished.[4]

2. "It is the day on which the tribe of Binyamin was allowed to come into the community." Because of a bitter controversy between Binyamin and the other tribes, the latter took an oath that their daughters would not marry into the tribe of Binyamin. This division between the tribes ceased on the fifteenth of Av.[5]

3. "It is the day on which the generation of the desert ceased to die." The generation who left Egypt were condemned to perish in the desert because of the sin of the spies. On the ninth of Av of every year of their forty year sojourn in the desert, some of them would die. In the fortieth year, all remained alive. Thinking they had perhaps erred in the date, they waited until the moon became full on the fifteenth of Av. When they saw there were still no deaths they knew the forty year decree was completed, and they therefore celebrated that day as a festival.[6]

4. "It is the day on which Hoshea ben Eloh removed the guards whom Yerovam ben Navot had stationed on the roads so that Israel should not make their pilgrimage [to Jerusalem] on the festivals." After the death of King Shlomoh, Yerovam ben Navot led a revolt and, splitting the kingdom into two, ruled over ten of the tribes (the kingdom of Israel) while King Shlomoh's son ruled over the other two (the kingdom of Yehudah). The Jewish people, however, were accustomed to make a pilgrimage to the Beis HaMikdosh at least three times a year - and the Beis HaMikdosh was in Jerusalem, in the kingdom of Yehudah. Fearing that these pilgrimages would cause the people to desert him and return to Yehudah, Yerovam set up idol worship in his kingdom and stationed guards on the highways to prevent Jews from going to Jerusalem. A later king of Israel, Hoshea ben Eloh, removed these guards, allowing the people to make the pilgrimage.[7]

5. "It is the day on which the dead of Betar were permitted to be buried." Betar was one of the last cities to be taken by the Romans in their conquest of the Holy Land. When it finally fell, the Romans did not permit the burial of its hundreds of thousands of slain citizens. On the fifteenth of Av, they were allowed to be buried.

6. "It is the day on which they finished cutting the wood for the altar." Throughout the summer, wood was chopped for the altar. Because the sun's heat diminishes from the fifteenth of Av on, the amount of moisture in the wood increases. This renders the wood unfit for use on the altar because firstly, it would produce more smoke,[8] and secondly, moisture brings worms, and worm-infested wood is unfit for use on the altar. Because cutting the wood for the altar was a sacred task, a great mitzvah, the day on which it was concluded each year was celebrated as a festival - similar to making a festive repast at the conclusion of learning Torah.[9]

The six reasons listed by the Talmud are really five, for the first two - that "it is the day on which the tribes were allowed to come together" and "it is the day on which the tribe of Binyamin was allowed to come into the community" - are one concept. They both express the idea of members of one tribe allowed to marry members of another.

Fifteenth Of Av Is The Counterpart To Tishah Beav

These five events do not seem adequate reason to make the fifteenth of Av a festival greater than any other. There is another, all-encompassing reason.[10]

The fifteenth of the month is the time when the moon is at its fullest. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one and, our Sages say,[11] Jews are compared to the moon. Just as the moon wanes and waxes, so Jews, although temporarily on a low spiritual or physical plane, eventually rise again. The fifteenth of Av, when the moon is full, symbolizes the renaissance of the Jewish people.

There are, however, eleven other months in which the moon is full on the fifteenth. Moreover, in two of these months, Nissan and Tishrei, the fifteenth corresponds to the start of festivals, Pesach and Sukkos respectively. What is particularly special about Av that "there never were greater festivals in Israel than the fifteenth of Av?"

The answer lies in the other occasion of note in the month of Av, the ninth. The ninth of Av is the day when the two Beis HaMikdoshs were destroyed, signaling the start of the long and terrible exile we are still enduring - tragedies which were the result of the Jews' transgressions. The ninth of Av is the nadir of Jewish physical and spiritual life.

But those tragedies are not without purpose. "Descent is for the purpose of ascent," and the deeper the descent, correspondingly greater will be the ascent which follows.[12] It is specifically after the awesome decline of the ninth of Av that we can reach the loftiest heights, heights that would otherwise be inaccessible.[13] Thus the fifteenth of Av, when the moon is at its fullest, signifies the rise of the Jewish people after the fall on the ninth of Av to heights loftier even than that of the fifteenth of Nissan or Tishrei.

The five festive events on the fifteenth of Av, then, are the counterparts to the five tragic events of Tishah BeAv.[14] The fifteenth of Av transforms the evil of the ninth of Av to the greatest of good, and therefore, "there never were greater festivals in Israel than the fifteenth of Av." In the words of the Yalkut Shimoni:[15] "The Lion [Nevuchadnetzar] rose in the mazal of the Lion [the month of Av] and destroyed Ariel [Yerushalayim], so that the Lion [G-d] should come during the mazal of the Lion and reconstruct Ariel." The ultimate goal of the tragedies of the month of Av is that they should be transformed into a greater good - the supreme festival of the fifteenth of Av.

Fifteenth Of Av Emphasizes Love Of A Jew

The Beis HaMikdosh was destroyed because of hatred without cause between Jews.[16] The events of the fifteenth of Av, which are the counterparts to the events of the ninth of Av, all express the concept of ahavas yisroel, love of a Jew.

"The day on which the tribes were allowed to come together" and "the day on which the tribe of Binyamin was allowed to come into the community" - which are essentially one concept - are both obviously expressions of ahavas yisroel. Indeed, the very announcement that all Jewry is now united, allowing the tribes to come together, is reason for a festival.

"The day on which the dead of Betar were permitted to be buried" and "the day on which the generation of the desert ceased to die" also emphasizes the love of Jews - G-d's love, which was expressed in these acts of kindness to His people.

"The day on which Hoshea ben Eloh removed the guards whom Yerovam ben Navot had stationed on the roads so that Israel should not make their pilgrimage on the festivals" allowed the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel to unite with the other two tribes when they went to Jerusalem - again, the idea of ahavas yisroel.

The wood they finished cutting on the fifteenth was necessary for the offering of the sacrifices on the altar. And the altar, our Sages say,[17] "removes and feeds, makes beloved, atones." "Removes" means "removes evil decrees from Israel," and "make beloved" means "makes beloved to their Father" - once again, the idea of fostering love.

In addition to the reasons enumerated by the Talmud for the importance of the fifteenth of Av - all of which, we have seen, are associated with ahavas yisroel - the mishnah itself gives a reason: "For on these days, the daughters of Yerushalayim...came out and danced in the vineyards, saying, ‘Young man, lift up your eyes and see what you are choosing for yourself. Do not set your eyes on beauty, but set your eyes on good family. Charm is deceptive and beauty is naught; a G-d-fearing woman is the one to be praised...'"[18]

The Talmud, elaborating on this theme, observes that "the daughters of Jerusalem went out [dressed] in borrowed white garments, so as not to embarrass those who had none." This is clearly an expression of ahavas yisroel.

The common theme behind all the reasons for the fifteenth of Av, then, is ahavas yisroel, the practice of which eradicates the cause of the exile and therefore automatically the exile itself.

Sicha, 15th of Av, 5739 & 15th of Av, 5742; Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXIV, p. 47ff.

   

Notes:

1. (Back to text) Taanis 4:8.

2. (Back to text) Taanis 30b, 31a.

3. (Back to text) The Talmud notes that it is quite understandable why Yom Kippur should be such an important festival, because "on it there is pardon and forgiveness," and it is "the day on which the latter tablets were given." But, asks the Talmud, what is special about the fifteenth of Av? The Talmud therefore lists several reasons.

4. (Back to text) Eretz Yisroel was allocated to those who were in the census taken in the desert (Rashi, Bamidbar 26:53). Only sons could inherit. The daughters of Tzelofchod, who died without sons, claimed their father's portion, and G-d allowed their claim, laying down the law that in the absence of sons, daughters inherit. However, in such a case, the daughter was allowed to marry only within the "family of the tribe of her father," so that "no inheritance shall move from one tribe to another" (Bamidbar 36:8-9). This condition, however, was only for the generation of the daughters of Tzelafchod, and came to an end on the fifteenth of Av.

5. (Back to text) The oath only applied to their daughters marrying into Binyamin, and not to their grandchildren.

6. (Back to text) Rashi, Taanis 31.

7. (Back to text) Hoshea ben Eloh was a wicked monarch; his one redeeming deed was the removal of the guards (Rashi, Taanis 31).

8. (Back to text) Although there was always smoke on the altar, as evidenced by the comment in Avos (5:5) that "the wind did not prevail over the [vertically rising] column of smoke," efforts were nevertheless made to minimize the smoke as much as possible.

9. (Back to text) See Tosafos Yomtov on Taanis 4:8; Rashbam, Bava Basra 121b.

10. (Back to text) See Pri Etz Chayim, end of Shaar Chag HaShavuos - Derush for the Fifteenth of Av; Or HaTorah, Devarim, Vol. VI, p. 2197ff.; Sefer HaMaamarim 5670, p. 218ff.

11. (Back to text) Sukkah 29a; Shemos Rabbah 15:26.

12. (Back to text) See Maamarei Admur HaZakein 5564, p. 25ff.

13. (Back to text) See previous essay The Purpose Of Exile, for a more extensive coverage of this subject.

14. (Back to text) And also to the five tragedies of the seventeenth of Tammuz, which marked the beginning of the events which led to the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh and the subsequent exile.

15. (Back to text) Yalkut Shimoni, Yirmeyahu section 259.

16. (Back to text) Yoma 9b.

17. (Back to text) Kesuvos 10b.

18. (Back to text) The reasons why the fifteenth of Av is a festival (those given by the Talmud vis a vis the Mishnah's) may be viewed in two ways:

    1. The fifteenth of Av is a festival only because of the events enumerated by the Talmud. Because it is a festival, it was therefore chosen as the day on which the daughters of Jerusalem would dance in the vineyards.

    2. It is a festival only because on that day the daughters of Jerusalem would dance in the vineyards. Any day chosen for this event would have become a festival. The fifteenth of Av was chosen for it already was an auspicious time - because of the five events listed by the Talmud.

    Tosfos (Taanis 30b, section beginning "Yom Shehutru") seems to hold the former view, that it is a festival because of the reasons enumerated by the Talmud.