Dear 

Thank you for all you support and good words. It warms my heart to receive each and every one of your emails and to know how much you care and worry for the people here in Israel.

The fire to the south of Israel has not yet ceased. The lives of the people living there have been put on hold, and they still need all the support they can get. We are stiil trying to support the companies and private people from the south whose livelihood has been hurt deeply. I have visited the south myself a few times over the last month and have met wonderful people dealing with an awful reality. If you want please click on this link to see a video of the visit to the people in the shelter of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai last week. And if you want to be part of the visit alongside the singer Gabi Berlin to the Golani soldiers please click on the link  or at this link for Mi Haish (Who is the Man?)

We all pray for peace, and that no more people will get hurt in this war. 

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Historical significance

There is no way to know exactly how early Tu B'Av began.
The fifteenth day of Ab was a popular holiday during the second Temple. The holiday celebrated the wood-offering brought in the Temple.

Unmarried girls would dress in simple white clothing (so that rich could not be distinguished from poor) and go out to sing and dance in the vineyards surrounding Jerusalem.
The Talmud states that there were no holy days as happy for the Jews as Tu B'Av and Yom Kippur.

Various reasons for celebrating on Tu b'Av as cited by the Talmud and its commentators:

While the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years, female orphans without brothers could only marry within their tribe, to prevent their father's inherited land in the Land of Israel from passing on to other tribes. On the fifteenth of Av of the fortieth year, this ban was lifted.
Tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with each other," namely: to marry women from other tribes (Talmud, Taanit 30b). This Talmudic source probably is alluding to a story in the book of Judges (chapter 21): After a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and other Israelite tribes, the tribes vowed not to intermarry with men of the tribe of Benjamin.

That same year, the last of the generation of the sin of the spies, which had been forbidden to enter the Promised Land, died out.

Cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Temple was completed for the year.

Tu B'Av is both an ancient and modern holiday.

Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E). Tu B'Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel.

It is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling  Valentine's Day  .

It should be noted that Tu B'Av, like several Jewish holidays (Passover, Sukkot, Tu Bishvat) begins on the night between the 14th and 15th day of the Hebrew month, since this is the night of a full moon in our lunar calendar.

Linking the night of a full moon with romance, love, and fertility is not uncommon in ancient cultures.

For almost 19 centuries--between the destruction of Jerusalem and the re-establishment of Jewish independence in the state of Israel in 1948--the only commemoration of Tu B'Av was that the morning prayer service did not include the penitence prayer (Tahanun).

In recent decades Israeli civil culture promotes festivals of singing and dancing on the night of Tu B'Av. The entertainment and beauty industries work overtime on this date. It has no formal legal status as a holiday-- it is a regular workday--nor has the Israeli rabbinate initiated any addition to the liturgy or called for the introduction of any ancient religious practices.

The cultural gap between Israeli secular society and the Orthodox rabbinate makes it unlikely that these two will find a common denominator in the celebration of this ancient/modern holiday in the foreseeable future.
The way that modern Israel celebrates this holiday, however, is a little different from the way it was celebrated in the days of old.

On Tu B'Av in Israel, restaurants as well as music, dance, and theater festivals all try to capitalize on this romantic holiday by promoting events for lovers.

We Have gathered specially for you our most loved Israeli Love Songs and Videos (click on the links to view the videos)

• Chalon la Yam Hatichon - Yehuda Poliker -Window to the Mediterranean Sea
• Geula Gil sings: Daber elai bi frahim ahuvi
• Ahava bat esrim - Yosi Banai - a 20 years old love
•  Shlomo Artzi: Most of the time you are my wife
• Yehoram Gahon: Al Teshate ba Ahava
• Eyal Golan: Who loves you more than me

New Bluenoemi Videos on Youtube (we invite you to subscribe on the Youtube Channel and "Like" us)

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Matzati et she ahava nafshi - I have found the one my soul loves

Eshet Hail mi Imtza - who will find a woman of valour

Maim Rabim lo iehabu et ha ahava -

Multitude of Waters cannot extinguish Love

Ani le Dodi ve dodi lee - Me to my Beloved and my Beloved for me

The Pomegranate

Exodus 28:33-34 directed that images of pomegranates be woven onto the hem of the me'il ("robe of the ephod"), a robe worn by the Hebrew High Priest.

Kings 7:13-22 describes pomegranates depicted on the capitals of the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) which stood in front of the temple King Solomon built in Jerusalem.

It is said that Solomon designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown" (calyx).

Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah .

For this reason and others, many Jews eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah.

However, the actual number of seeds varies with individual fruits.

It is also a symbol of fruitfulness.

The pomegranate is one of the few images which appear on ancient coins of Judea as a holy symbol, and today many Torah scrolls are stored while not in use with a pair of decorative hollow silver "pomegranates" (rimmonim) placed over the two upper scroll handles.

Some Jewish scholars believe that it was the pomegranate that was the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden.

Pomegranate is one of the Seven Species -Shiv'at Ha-Minim), the types of fruits and grains enumerated in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 8:8) as being special products of the Land of Israel.

Happy Day of Love!

from Bluenoemi Team