Tu B'Av -- that is the 15th of this month on the Jewish calendar -- is coming up this Monday. There are various events held in its honor around the New York area, especially singles events. The singles events do fit with some of the history of the holiday, but in this post, we are going to go back even further to the first Tu B'Av that became a holiday. As mentioned in http://www.examiner.com/x-18522-NY-Jewish-Bridal-Examiner~y2010m7d18-The-fast-of-the-9th-of-Av, the 9th of Av was already marked as a day of mourning back when the Israelites were en route for their promised land. The scouts came back with a negative report which convinced the people that they would never make it. It was then decreed that they would remain in the desert for 40 years, during which that entire generation of males (the women did not succumb to the slander) would die. The day designated for their dying was none other than the 9th of Av.
As a practical matter, the men would dig graves for themselves every year on the eve of that date. Those whose time had not yet come would arise the next day, but some would not. This went on until the fortieth year. That year, every single man arose from his grave. They thought that they had mistaken the date, so they stayed in the graves the next night and the next, and even the two after that. But once they saw the full moon that signified that the middle of the month had arrived, they realized that the dreaded date had come and gone with all of the last 15,000 men of that generation spared. T that day -- Tu B'Av -- became one of rejoicing. (The source is Eicha Rabba, and is also cited by commentators in connection with the account of Tu B'Av in Taanis 31a). From fairly early on in Jewish history, then, Tu B'Av signified a day when Hashem manifested closeness and forgiveness to His people, which is something it has in common with Yom Kippur. These qualities are also evoked at every union of bride and groom, as explained in Aspects-of-the-Jewish-Wedding-Evoking-Yom-Kippur.
This date is also associated with other events that I hope to cover in the next post.
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