The 15th of Av, Tu B’Av, isn’t a biblical holiday. There are no sacrifices in the Temple for it, no special psalms, no laws to prepare for it. In fact, the Jewish sages barely mention it, except to note that the longer nights are perfect for more Torah study, “for the night was created for study.” And yet, the Talmud describes it as the happiest day of the year, when the young women of Jerusalem would dress in white, dance in the vineyards, and the young men would come seeking a bride.
On the Hebrew calendar, it occurred this past Friday night, and I share it here because Tu B’Av gives us the perfect lens to focus on the greatest love story in the Bible — not between two people, but between God and the Jewish people. Why would the Sages see this midsummer evening of joy as rivaling even Yom Kippur? And what does it reveal about God’s relationship with His people, a love as fierce as it is faithful?
The Song of Songs is where this love story is written in its most vivid form. Every verse carries the intimacy, yearning, and devotion of a bride and groom. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”captures the mutual commitment and closeness at the heart of the covenant.
Further on, the author recalls the passion of Sinai, when God and Israel met face to face – and speaks to a relationship tested by failure yet bound by loyalty.
This is not a love built on naïve perfection. It is a covenant that has weathered betrayal and exile, and still draws the two partners back together. Tu B’Av celebrates that return — the moment when the distance closes, the wounds begin to heal, and the relationship moves forward renewed.
The first half of Av is the low point of the Jewish year. The 9th of Av marks the destruction of both Temples and countless other tragedies. In the days leading up to it, we hold festive completions of study and give charity to soften our grief. Then comes the 15th, the full moon, the turning point. The darkness lifts. The song changes key.
Ancient history gives several reasons for celebrating Tu B’Av. The tribes were allowed to intermarry again after Joshua’s generation. The ban on marrying members of the tribe of Benjamin was lifted. The last generation of the desert stopped dying, marking the end of the punishment for the sin of the spies. King Hoshea removed the roadblocks stopping pilgrims from reaching Jerusalem. Each one is a story of reconciliation, unity, and a future restored.
From a spiritual lens, Tu B’Av is a preview of final redemption. It is the night when the bride and groom, God and Israel, are back in step, when the breaches in the relationship are healed, when the nation’s heart is open again to covenant and to each other.
Why no extra prayers? Why no long list of dos and don’ts? Because the day’s essence is not in performing an external act but in living a restored relationship. The “command” of Tu B’Av is to rejoice in unity, to seek peace, to study God’s Word as the nights grow longer. It is an inside-out celebration, the kind that makes people dance in vineyards.
Forty-five days before Rosh Hashanah, we even begin wishing each other ketivah vechatimah tovah, to be inscribed and sealed for a good year. The year’s new melody begins here.
If the 9th of Av is the wound, Tu B’Av is the scar, proof that the wound has closed, but also a reminder of what it cost. In God’s calendar, love is not sentimental. It is forged in the fire of history, bound by covenant, and renewed in joy. That is why Tu B’Av is the Bible’s greatest festival of love, because it sings the whole song, the ecstasy and the exile, the harmony and the discord, and still ends in redemption.
And that is a song worth learning by heart.
