Our holiday of love, in a mall, in a ceasefire

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Happy Tu B'Av!
Today is the Jewish minor festival celebrated on the 15th of the month of Av (in Hebrew, Tu B'Av).

I explained its lovely customs and roots from the days of the Talmud in these three posts:
Dancing in the vineyards in the moonlight 

The Feast of Xylophory 

The Day of the Breaking of the Ax

In recent years, in Israel, the holiday of love has started to look a lot like the Valentine's Day that other countries celebrate.

In the Negev Mall in Beer Sheva today lots of stands had sprung up with Tu B'Av gifts.
On the white chocolate lips it says "Especially for you, with a kiss."

Today is the beginning of a 3-day ceasefire, so people were so happy to get out of the house and away from the bomb shelters, they flocked to the mall.

But still, big signs pointed to the huge building's "protected area."
When the rockets are falling, believe me, you want to know where to run in the 90 seconds before the explosion.
This 3-story mall has a big skylight of glass in the roof.
Even the elevator is of glass.
The arrow in the photo points to stairs.
Imagine the mothers with kids in a stroller having to get down to a lower floor in 1.5 minutes.
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(Linking to  signs, signs  and   Our World Tuesday.)
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The Day of the Breaking of the Ax, Tu B'Av

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Today was Tu B'Av.  As you can see from the Google doodle, in modern Israel this ancient holiday has evolved into a day of love, with many of the trappings of Valentine's Day that we learned from  other countries.
But reading a good Chabad article today, I learned that the Talmud lists six joyous events which occurred on this 15th of Av.

Just recently we found an X word for ABC Wednesday:
 Josephus (Bellum Judaisum 2:17)   refers to Tu B'Av as the Feast of Xylophory ("Wood-bearing") because on that day the cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Temple was completed for the year.

Today I learned this from Chabad:

 When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, the annual cutting of firewood for the altar was concluded on the 15th of Av. The event was celebrated with feasting and rejoicing (as is the custom upon the conclusion of a holy endeavor), and included a ceremonial breaking of the axes, which gave the day its name, the Day of the Breaking of the Ax.
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Why break the axes? Why not store them for next year’s cutting? Because the ax represents the very antithesis of what the altar, and the Temple as a whole, stood for.
Regarding the making of the altar, G‑d had instructed: “When you build a stone altar for Me, do not build it of cut stone; for if your sword has been lifted upon it, you have profaned it” (Exodus 20:22). “Do not lift iron upon it . . . The altar of G‑d shall be built of whole stones” (Deuteronomy 27:5–6). If any metal implement so much as touched a stone, that stone was rendered unfit for use in the making of the altar.
Our sages explain: “Iron was created to shorten the life of man, and the altar was created to lengthen the life of man; so it is not fitting that that which shortens should be lifted upon that which lengthens” (Talmud, Middot 3:4). Iron, the instrument of war and destruction, has no place in the making of the instrument whose function is to bring eternal peace and harmony to the world.

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 From the Chabad website.  Based on the teachings of the

 Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; adapted by Yanki Tauber.

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See also http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2009/08/dancing-in-vineyards-in-moonlight.html
and for fun look at  http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2008/06/woodpile.html

Happy Tu B'Av!

(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

The Feast of Xylophory

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ABC Wednesday's dreaded  X Day has come around again.
But this year I am ready, with a new word I came across just recently.

Soon we will have the happy Jewish holiday of Tu B'Av.

The Talmud gives several reasons for celebrating this date 15th of Av, one being that 
cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Temple was completed for the year.

The wood-offering brought in the Temple is based on Nehemiah 10:35:

35 And we cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, קֻרְבַּן הָעֵצִים to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law; 

 Josephus (Bellum Judaisum 2:17)   refers to Tu B'Av as the Feast of Xylophory ("Wood-bearing").

There you have it!  An  X  word!
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P.S.  The firewood cutting in the photo was done by me and Mark, my friend's husband.
Update:  Just for fun see also http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2008/06/woodpile.html
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Dancing in the vineyards in the moonlight

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Happy Tu B'Av, the Jewish holiday of love!

Last night the full moon signaled the beginning of the 15th day of the month of Av.
Originally a post-biblical day of joy, Tu B'Av served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple period.

In the glow of a full summer moon, young women, robed in white, would dance in the fields outside the walls of Jerusalem. The men would follow in hopes of finding a bride

(Modern Israel does have vineyards, but I couldn't find any close to Jerusalem; so permit me to post my pictures from Switzerland instead.)

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We read in the Talmud, in Tractate Ta'anit:

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Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said "Israel has no days as festive as the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur....," and adds "On these days, the young maidens of Jerusalem would emerge in the streets wearing borrowed white clothing [so as not to embarrass the poor who did not have garments of their own]. They would form a circle (and dance) in the vineyards. What would they say (while they danced)? 'Young man, lift up your eyes and appreciate whom you are selecting (to marry). Don't look at our beauty. Instead, look at the family (from which we descend).'

After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. this minor festival went almost unnoticed for many centuries.

But in the past few decades the non-religious Jews in the State of Israel have brought Tu B'Av back to life as a time to celebrate love and enjoy music festivals. It is even becoming something like the Valentine's Day known to other countries, red roses, gifts and all.

Or at least so they tell me . . .
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