By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
This coming Monday will be the fifteenth day of Av, which we commemorate by not saying Tachanun or fasting, including a chassan and kallah on the day of their wedding. In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, Tu B’Av was a full-fledged Yom Tov celebration, but today, we keep only these minhagim, a reminder and a shadow of what once was.
The Mishnah relates that Klal Yisrael never had such Yamim Tovim as Yom Kippur and Tu B’Av. (Yom Kippur is a happy day, despite of the difficulties of the fast, for we are able to achieve atonement for our sins.) On Tu B’Av, young women seeking husbands would go out and dance in the vineyards, wearing borrowed white dresses—borrowed, to avoid embarrassing the poorer girls who did not own nice clothing. Young men who were seeking a wife would go to the vineyards and offer marriage to the young woman of their choice. All this was done with modesty and holiness, and the custom continued from year to year without incident. But why was this day a Yom Tov? The Gemara lists seven events deserving of celebration that occurred on this date. This column will try to explain one of them.
Due to a serious blunder of Shlomo Hamelech, Klal Yisrael was split into two separate kingdoms upon his death. The ten tribes were to the north formed the kingdom of Yisrael, and two to the south became Yehuda. The first king of Yisrael, Yeravam ben Nevat, was very concerned for his kavod. He feared that if the people were oleh regel, they would be awed by the majesty of the Beis Hamikdash and restore their allegiance to Yehuda.
Yeravam therefore commissioned two golden calves, which he placed at the northern and southern borders of Yisrael. Because he was an exceptional talmid chacham, he was somehow able to convince the people that it was permissible to worship at these two shrines.
But the people still wanted to go back to Yerushalayim, to the Beis Hamikdash, as they always had. Therefore, Yeravam placed policemen on all the highways leading to Yerushalayim, threatening with execution anyone who tried to break the blockade. And Yeravam’s successors all continued these practices.
Only during the reign of the very last king of Yisrael, the final moments before the ten tribes were exiled, were the guards removed, and permission given to anyone who wished to return to Yerushalayim. This was such a joyous event that it was established as a Yom Tov, celebrating the ability to once again be oleh regel.
