Hebrew Month of Av begins Mon Aug 5. Av means "father". It's customary to add the name “Menachem,” which means “comforter” or “consoler”—so Menachem Av.
In this month, both Temples were destroyed and many other tragedies occurred. Yet our Father in heaven is there to comfort and console us.
Talmudic rabbis made the claim that God ordained this day as a day of disaster as punishment for the lack of faith evidenced by the Israelites during their desert wanderings after the exodus from Egypt.
Other tragedies: the destruction of both the first and 2nd temples in Jerusalem; the expulsions of the Jews from England and Spain, the beginning of WWI; Anne Frank was captured by the Germans; Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (peoplehistory)
9th of Av, Tisha B'Av, is a fast day and we abstain from washing, applying lotions or creams, wearing leather shoes. We read the Book of Lamentations and often sit in low lighted areas.
Tu B'av, 15th of Av, (Aug 18, 2024) is one of the happiest days of the Jewish calendar and is meant to find one's predestined soul mate.
In recent decades Israeli civil culture promotes festivals of singing and dancing on the night of Tu B’Av.
The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted saying:
There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife)? (Ta’anit, Chapter 4)
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