Monday, June 5th 2023   |

Tu B’Av

Et tu?

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

Tonight begins Tu B’Av (the fifteenth day of Av), also known as Yom Ha-Ahavah, the “Day of Love.” Our ancestors celebrated this “minor” holiday with unrivaled joy, with singing, dancing, match-making, and a principled recognition that love transcends superficial physical, social, and economic differences (Ta’anit 4:8).

Today, Tu B’Av has enjoyed a resurgence as an auspicious day for romance, marriage proposals, weddings.

Tu B’Av celebrates...

Off the Pulpit: Tu B’Av

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

Tonight begins Tu B’av, the Jewish holiday that celebrates love. I am in Venice, Italy for a conference and will be chairing a discussion of love in the modern world. There are many sorts of love: familial, friendship, even love of those things we cannot possess like mountains or stars.

But romantic love is the subject of these meditations. The aptness of the conference setting is...

OP-ED: Weddings are lovely; it’s the marriage that counts

By CINDY SHER

CHICAGO (JTA) — My sister was married on a beautiful summer day many years ago.

Those of us in the wedding party took pictures in a garden before the ceremony. As maid of honor, one of my duties was to hold up the train of her dress so it wouldn’t drag through the dirt. But there was a lot of dirt, and the dress was soiled despite...

Six Jewish podcasts that will make you rethink love

(JTA) — Tu B’Av, a minor holiday that celebrates the wine harvest, was held Sunday-Monday, August 6-7 this year. It is considered an auspicious day for matchmaking and thus has been dubbed “The Jewish Day of Love.”

Let’s face it, though: Days of love are not for everyone. Some of us may be happily alone; some recently heartbroken, broken up or widowed. Some couples may be going through a rough...

Israeli couples embrace a rabbinical prenup

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Recognizing Tu B’Av, the Jewish Day of Love, the Tzohar rabbinical organization said that public interest is increasing in its halachic prenuptial agreement.

Tu B’Av was observed this year from sundown on Sunday, August 6 to sundown on Monday, August 7, the 15th day of the Jewish month of Av.

The Heskem B’Ahava, or Agreement of Love, was introduced in 2015 to prevent legal and halachic, or...

For ‘Jewish Valentine’s Day,’ meet 5 couples who found love on Israel trips

By GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) — In the two-part finale of the third season of “Broad City,” the show’s main characters, Abbi and Ilana, embark on a “Birthmark” trip — a thinly veiled allusion to the famed Birthright Israel trip that sends Jews aged 18 to 26 on free 10-day trips to Israel.

Upon boarding the “El Ol” plane, the best friends are assigned seats next to guys based on their...

Happy Tu B’Av

Today marks one of two days considered the happiest days on the Jewish calendar. Tu B’av, or the 15th of Av, has in modern times become a day dedicated to love and in many ways a Jewish version of Valentine’s Day. It is a day highly coveted for weddings and considered a Hag HaAhava or “holiday of love.”

Coming after the three weeks of sadness leading up to Tisha B’Av,...