The Holiday

The final mishnah of tractate Taanis enumerates five tragedies that occurred to the Jewish people on the 9th of Av. It then transitions to a day of great joy:

“There were no days as joyous for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur.” (Taanis 26b)

The Talmud lists several reasons for this holiday:

• This was the day on which the members of different tribes were permitted to intermarry,
• the tribe of Benjamin was permitted to intermarry with the rest of the Jewish people after a period of ostracization,
• it was the day on which the deaths of the Jews in the wilderness ceased,
• it was the day that the slain of Beitar were brought to burial, several years after the battle at Beitar, and,
• the fifteenth of Av was the day on which they stopped chopping down trees for the arrangement of wood that burned on the altar, as it is taught... From the fifteenth of Av onward, the strength of the sun grows weaker, and from this date they would not cut additional wood for the arrangement, as they would not be properly dry, and they would therefore be unfit for use in the Temple. Rav Menashya said: And they called the fifteenth of Av the day of the breaking of the scythe.” (Taanis 30b)