Today marks the Jewish holiday of Tu b’Av (i.e., the fifteenth day of the month of Av), which—according to the Talmud—celebrates an ancient decree allowing marriage among the twelve tribes of Israel, as well as the end of a period of bloody intertribal violence described in the book of Judges. Despite the day’s minor status, the talmudic sages compare it to Yom Kippur in its holiness. On this day, moreover, “the daughters of Jerusalem” would borrow white clothes from one another, so that their socioeconomic status would be undeterminable, and dance in the vineyards, calling to young men to pick them as wives. For Stuart Halpern, Tu b’Av bears an important lesson for American society today:
For the disparate tribes, accustomed to decades of nomadic life, to cohere into one nation, into one people, they needed to experience a major psychological, emotional, and economic leveling. This was best done by literally making them borrow each other’s clothes and walk a mile or two in each other’s shoes.
Of course, one day’s break from difference was not a John Lennon-style imagining of no possessions or distinctions. But Tu b’Av was a day when all could at least dance together. Maybe, like all dances before and since, not everyone was able to throw off their inhibitions and hit the floor. Maybe some shifted their feet awkwardly or loitered at the drinks table. But all showed up, having stepped outside of their normal concerns, and stopped signaling, just for a moment, their virtues. And the joy felt that day matched that of the holiest day of the year.
Tribally drawn lines seem to be marked in the sands of social media by the millisecond [and] economic disparity exacerbates all manners of societal ills. . . . But Tu b’Av offers a glimpse into a different possibility. Unlike Yom Kippur, it doesn’t require . . . formal, and often difficult-to-follow, all-day services. It simply asks us to remember the unifying possibilities of emerging from our echo chambers, stepping into each other’s shoes, and dancing together. Even if only for a day.
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/love-fest-tu-bav