Source: http://images.inmagine.com
(That was a one-hit wonder by the Monotones, in case you’re curious.)
Following on the heels of Tisha B’Av (the most somber day in the Jewish calendar) is the festival of Tu B’av – the Jewish holiday of love. In days gone by (during the Second Temple period, to be exact – around 2500 years ago), young, unmarried women would don white dresses and dance in the vineyards. There, according to the Mishna, they would sing, “young man, consider whom you choose to be your wife” – and hopefully, some eligible bachelor would take notice. (After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife… Anyone? Anyone?) After the destruction of the Second Temple, the dancing and matchmaking of Tu B’Av fell out of practice, and the holiday went on a nineteen-hundred year hiatus.
Recently, however, the day has experienced a resurgence in popularity, especially in Israel. The entertainment, beauty, and flowers and cards industries have begun to have a field day promoting Tu B’Av as the Jewish alternative to Valentine’s Day. And uniquely, though it’s a Jewish holiday, there are essentially no rituals and no liturgy associated with it – so if you want to celebrate the day, pretty much anything goes! Host a romantic dinner party, send some flowers to a loved one, sign up on JDate, or… check out some Jewish books on love and relationships (hey, you’re reading a Jewish book blog, what did you expect?). Here are a few popular ones you may want to consider:
● Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics, by Rabbi Elliot Dorff
● Treasury of Jewish Love: Poems, Quotations & Proverbs
● Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy
● God, Love, Sex, and Family: A Rabbi’s Guide for Building Relationships That Last
● The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage
● Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments
● Kabbalah on Love (Technology for the Soul)
Happy reading! XOXO,
- Naomi
