The Cosmic Origins of Tu B'Av
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Cosmic Origins of Tu B'Av
According to Bnei Yesakhar, a Hassidic teaching by R. Zvi Elimelekh Shapira of Dinov, p. 112d, translated by Ivan Ickovits:
We learn from tradition that the daughters of Israel would go out in a circle on Yom Kippur [and on Tu B’Av, the fifteenth of Av] and the men who did not have mates would go out and look for a mate. . . . [[In fact, the Ta'anit passage where this is all reported says the women chose their husbands on that day, not vice versa. -- AW]]
[Why on Yom Kippur? Because] on Yom Kippur God seeks out Israel in joy and gives her the Second Tablets, binding Himself to her forever. Hence, Yom Kippur is a day designated for marital union. . . .
[Why on Tu B'Av?]
The Talmud states: Forty days before the formation of the embryo the heavens declare that this soul will be wed to this soul. Forty days before the 25th of Elul (the day of creation according to Rebbe Eliezer) is Tu B'Av (the15th of Av). [That is, since the 1st of Tishri is the day of the creation of Humanity / Adam, by counting backward we find that 25th of Elul is the day of creation of the universe.]
Thus, it was on the Tu B'Av before creation that Israel became a thought in the divine Mind and Israel was first destined to receive the Torah (the Second Tablets) on Yom Kippur.* This is the reason that the tribes were permitted to intermarry on that day and the day was designated for marital union.
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* Rabbi Arthur Waskow's comment: Although I see that Reb Zvi Elimelekh wishes to connect the two wedding days and thus connect the "pre-creation creation" with the Torah of Israel, it seems to me that the connection between Tu B'Av and 25th of Elul (creation of the universe) makes it more apt to the text and the dating to say that 40 days before the Creation, God decreed the joining of God’s Own Self to the Universe. Thus TU B’Av -- which is really Y"H B'Av -- celebrated the very first covenant of all, and that is why we celebrate covenantings on that day.
Now -- WHY does the spark of the Creation began on that day?
BECAUSE THAT IS "WHEN" Y"H (the real way of spelling 15) ENTERS (the month of) AV -- "ALEPH-BET."
THAT IS, THE ENTIRE CREATIVE PROCESS BEGINS, THE GREAT TZIMTZUM HAPPENS, WHEN YAH ENTERS THE ALEPH-BET.
THAT'S WHY CREATION BEGINS WITH A "BET", B'RESHIT: BECAUSE YAH GOES FAR ENOUGH INTO THE ALEPH-BET TO GET TO "BET," (WHICH UNLIKE Aleph HAS A SOUND, AND ALSO AS THE 2D IN THE SERIES IS NECESSARY TO MAKE IT A SERIES; BOTH ARE CRUCIAL ASPECTS OF THE EMERGENCE OF A UNIVERSE) --
AND THAT'S WHEN THE SPARK IS STRUCK.
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[RETURNING TO THE TEXT]
This is also the case with Tu B'Shvat. Tu B’Shvat is forty days before the twenty-fifth of Nisan, which is the day of creation according to Rebbe Yehoshuah. We already know that the human being is likened to a tree.
Therefore, even though we don't hold that Nisan is the month of creation, we designate Tu B’Shvat as the New Year for the Trees in that the first blossom is the embryonic stage of what will blossom into fruit and flower and fill the world with beauty.
