KA CC Archive Jul 2025

Last year during the High Holy Days, we talked about Love.  The love that God has for us, the love that lifts us up, the love that keeps us in relationship with God and God’s mitzvot, the love between people, the love we have for our earth, and the love we have for those who have passed.  As the Jewish year begins to turn toward the High Holy Days again (Rosh Hashanah begins in 53 Days!), we again turn our attention to our hearts.

Three weeks ago, we observed the 17th of Tammuz, a day when we remember five events that befell the Jewish people and began three weeks of mourning.  We read three Haftarot of Retribution, hearing our prophets rebuke the Israelites and the ways in which they have turned their hearts away from God.  The mourning crescendos at Tisha B’Av, a day when both the first and second Temples were destroyed.  We fast, we sit on the floor in the dark and chant Megillat Eicha, describing the events of destruction, and we sing laments of our communal sadness.

Then, immediately, we are greeted with a special Shabbat, right after Tisha B’av where God comforts us in our pain.  For seven weeks following, we read Haftarot that brings us back into a relationship of love with God.  

That first Shabbat, however, also coincides with a minor Jewish holiday that is historically known as the holiday of Love!  Tu B’Av, literally translated as the date - the 15th of the month of Av, is historically, a day when single women would dress in white and dance in the vineyards in order to announce their eligibility for marriage.

Lest we think that the day was only about beauty and fashion, the Mishna tells us that the women would remind men of Proverbs where it says “Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Eternal, she shall be praised’ (Proverbs 31:30), and it says: ‘Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates’ (Proverbs 31:31).  Thus, they would ask the young men to focus on their good lineage and pious deeds, much better qualities to consider for choosing a partner and a good first step in preparing for a season of introspection leading the High Holy Days.

Rav Obadia from Bartenura adds a list of other wonderful things that happened on Tu B’Av.  Many of them marked the end of various distresses in the lives of the Jewish people and opened a path toward reconciliation with God.  After a month of mourning and intense grief in the Hebrew calendar, we turn toward a day that speaks to the renewal of life and love.  Tu B’Av is followed two weeks later, with the beginning of the month of Elul, often associated with love for God and searching of our hearts and souls.

At Kol Ami, we will mark this holiday of love with a Musical Shabbat service. On Friday, August 8th, we will meditate on the meaning of love within our prayers, we will sing songs of joy and connection with God and our fellow Jewish people, and we will begin the work of reuniting our hearts with, and reigniting the sparks of our love for, God.  

I hope you’ll bring your voices, Kol Ami, to join in our songs of love!