SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
The Great Restoration
The special significance of Tu b’Av in light of COVID.
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lowly but surely, the lives we enjoyed B.C. (Before COVID) are beginning to return. We’re beginning to have Shabbos guests again, and schools are planning on returning to (almost) normal in the fall. Rabbi David Shuls are slowly Polsky returning to normal, planning full in-person High Holiday services and even bringing back their Kiddushes. As we return to these parts of our lives, we can now better appreciate what we previously took for granted. After living our lives apart, we find new joy in reconnecting. These causes for celebration enable us to find new meaning in the upcoming “minor” holiday of Tu b’Av (the 15th of the month of Av). Although seemingly minor, the Mishnah (Taanit 26b) describes it as one of the two happiest days of the Jewish calendar (the other is Yom Kippur, though that’s for another discussion). Those somewhat familiar with it know it as the Jewish Valentine’s Day. When the Temple still stood, single women would borrow each other’s white dresses (so as to not embarrass those whose dresses weren’t as beautiful) and dance in the fields. Single men would see the women dancing, approach them and, eventually, get married. The Gemara (Ta’anit 30b) asks why Tu b’Av is such a happy day and provides six
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explanations (30b-31a). Each of them can be better appreciated in light of our year and a half of COVID and our return to normalcy. The first is that it celebrates the end of the Israelites’ dying in the desert. The spies came back with their report about the Promised Land on the night of Tisha b’Av. According to the Midrash, as part of the Israelites’ punishment for accepting the spies’ defamation, they had to dig their own graves and lie in them the night of Tisha b’Av not knowing if
realized that they had not erred after all, and that G-d had finally ended the annual plague. Right now, we are finally beginning to climb out of our self-dug graves. Over the past year and a half, we were confining ourselves to our homes whenever possible, unsure when the plague would end. Despite remaining mostly homebound and masked outside, we were still anxious about whether we may have somehow caught it from a delivery person or someone in a store. Those of us who had to work in per-
they would wake up the next morning. That morning, those who lived that year got up, while those who died would remain in the graves they had dug for themselves. In their 40th year, the Israelites dug their own graves again, but, the next morning, they were surprised to discover that no one had died the previous night. They assumed that they must have miscalculated the date, so they lied in their graves the next night. And then the next. And then the next. Finally, by the 15th of Av, they noticed the full moon, and
son were terrified of catching COVID from a coworker, and even more terrified should we see them cough. Those living by themselves couldn’t receive visitors or help other than deliver meal packages and feared dying alone with no one able to help. With COVID finally ebbing, we have finally seen the full moon signifying the end to this plague. TIME TO MARRY Two other reasons given relate to marriage. Shmuel of Nehardea of third-century Babylonia teaches that, in the
desert, the Israelites of each tribe weren’t allowed to intermarry with those of other tribes. It was on Tu b’Av that they were given permission to do so. The third- to fourth-century Babylonian sage Rav Nachman answers that Tu b’Av was the day when the rest of Israel found a way to intermarry with the tribe of Benjamin. At the end of Judges, the rest of Israel wages war against and routs the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20:1448). Right after the war, the men of Israel swear that they will never let their daughters marry them (Judges 21:1). Soon afterward, their feelings toward Benjamin change; they regret making the vow, but they are nonetheless constrained by it (Judges 21:3-18). It is on Tu b’Av that they figure out a loophole enabling Benjamin to marry into the rest of Israel (Judges 21:19-23). Because of COVID, weddings have either been put on hold or held outdoors with a limited number of guests. While there were certainly dates, many single people, especially those who are immunocompromised, did not, making them undoubtedly feel very lonely. For those unable to date or marry due to COVID, Tu b’Av symbolizes and expresses their renewed ability to date and marry again. Even for those of us who were already married, COVID has also prevented us from connecting with others. Friends had been unable to meet other than over Zoom or socially
