SAWYOUATTHEVINEYARD

לא היו ימים טובים לישראל כחמשה עשר בא"ב וכיום הכיפורים - The greatest days of the Jewish year are Tu b'av and Yom Kippur! The mishna [Taanis 26b] continues to relate that the girls of Jerusalem would dance in a circle in front of the boys in the vineyards [cholos ba'kramim] and the boys would choose their wives. [See the gemara there for more information - it's EXCITING. Before "sawyouatsinai" there was "sawyouatthevineyard":-)]

The holy Ohev Yisrael of Apta Rebbe Avraham Yehoshua Heschel [d. 1825] explained that this mishna can be better understood in light of the last gemara in Taanis. The gemara teaches that at the end of days the tzadikim are going to make a circle [machol] and dance around Hashem and sing to Him. A circle symbolises EQUALITY and UNITY. Nobody is ahead of or behind anyone else and everybody is equidistant from the center. The dancing of the girls took place on the 15th b'av - 15th of the aleph beis. What is the fifteenth letter of the aleph beis? Samech! A circle!! The BEST day of the year is the day of the circle. EQUALITY, UNITY, LOVE, CONNECTION. The word for circle is "machol"- which also means to forgive. Both Tu B'av and Yom Kippur were days of forgiving each other. The mishna also says that the girls would lend each other white dresses so as not to embarrass the girls who couldn't afford to buy a dress. Once again we see the theme of equality and sisterhood. Everybody wearing a pretty white dress. The dancing girls were from Yerushalayim which is the city "she-chubrah lah yachdav" - the city where everybody is connected [Talmud Yerushalmi].

May we all have a Tu B'av that brings us closer together and may all of those people who would like to get married quickly find their zivug! :-)