Today is Tu b’av, about which it is written:
לא היו ימים טובים לישראל
כחמישה עשר באב וכיום הכיפורים
שבהם בנות ירושלים יוצאות בכלי לבן שאולים
שלא לבייש את מי שאין לו
ובנות ירושלים יוצאות וחולות בכרמים
ומה היו אומרות
שא נא בחור עיניך וראה מה אתה בורר לך
אל תיתן עיניך בנוי תן עיניך במשפחה
שקר החן והבל היופי אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל
Lo’ hayu yamim tovim l’yisra’el
Kahamisha `asar b’av ukhyom hakipurim
Shebahem b’not y’rushalayim yos’ot bikhley lavan sh’ulim
Shelo’ l’vayesh et mi she’eyn lo
Uvnot y’rushalayim yos’ot v’holot bakramim
Uma hayu omrot
Sa na bahor `eyneykha ur’e ma ata borer l’kha
Al titen `eyneykha banoy ten `eyneykha bamishpaha
Sheqer hahen v’hevel hayofi isha yir’at hashem hi tithalal
There were no days so good for Israel
As the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur
In which the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothing, borrowed
So as not to embarrass those who didn’t have any
And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards
And what would they say
Lift up, young man, your eyes and see what you may choose for yourself
Don’t give your eyes to beauty give your eyes to family
Grace is deceit and beauty is worthless, a woman who fears the Lord will be praised
Ta`anit 4:8
The last three lines are understood to be three versions of what the young women sang as they danced. The beautiful ones said, “Lift up, young man, your eyes…” the rich ones said, “Don’t give your eyes to beauty…” and the virtuous ones said, “Grace is deceit and beauty is worthless…”
Nowadays, Tu b’av is something like an Israeli version of Valentine’s Day – in modern Israel it is often called Yom Ha’ahava, the Day of Love. You can imagine where it goes from there, especially considering that, unlike Valentine’s Day, it comes in the middle of the summer.
Where does the name Tu b’av come from? In Jewish tradition, numbers are written using letters of the alphabet, sort of like roman numerals. But in the Jewish tradition, all letters of the alphabet are used, starting with the first letter. The first to the tenth letters (alef to yud) have the values one to ten. After that, the letters (kaf to quf) have the values 20 to 100. After that, the letters resh, shin, and tav have the values 200, 300, and 400. After that they double-up: 500 is tav-quf, 600 is tav-resh, etc. Numbers in-between are formed by combining letters, for example 21 is kaf-alef, 20-1. Normally, you would expect 15 to be written with the letters for 10 and 5, however, this would spell one of the names of God, so instead the letters for 9 and 6 are used. Nine is tet and six is vav, which can be read tet-vav, but is often read as a word: tu.
Tu b’av also has a personal, and doubly appropriate, meaning for me. It is the birthday of my beloved wife: Happy birthday, ra`ayati, yonati, yafati, `ad me’a v`esrim!
More about Tu b’av here and here.
Posted by David Boxenhorn at August 2, 2004 12:58 PM