daf bit: Tu b'Av, when young women's thoughts turn to love...

[cellio]

Tu b'Av, the 15th of Av, follows on the heels of Tisha b'Av (the 9th). While Tisha b'Av is a day of great mourning, Tu b'Av is a day of celebration. Tu b'Av is tomorrow (Friday); here is something from the talmud about it, from tractate Taanit.

R' Shimon b. Gamaliel said: there never were in Israel greater days of joy than Tu b'Av and Yom Kippur. On these days the (unmarried) daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white garments -- borrowed to avoid embarrassing anybody over wealth -- and danced in the vineyards, exclaiming: young man, lift up your eyes and see what you choose for yourself! Do not look for beauty but for good family. Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord shall be praised (quoting Proverbs), and also: give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

The g'mara asks: it's obvious why the day of atonement, when our sins are forgiven, calls for celebration, but what happened on Tu b'Av? Various reasons are offered -- the day the tribes were allowed to intermarry, the day the tribe of Binyamin was allowed to re-enter Israel, the day the generation of the wilderness ceased dying out, the day Hosea removed Jeroboam's blockades that prevented pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or the day each year that they stopped cutting trees for the altar. (26b mishna, 30b-31a g'mara)

Is R' Shimon really saying that this kind of celebration happened on Yom Kippur too? It seems to say "these days", but I understand that this celebration was unique to Tu b'Av. I guess R' Shimon didn't have the only opinion on the matter, though it's not contradicted here.

Today's daf is Zevachim 104.