Today in the evening comes the 15th day of the month of Av, about which it is said in the Babylonian Talmud (tractate Taanit): “There were no holidays for the Jews like the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur.” The 15th of Av is the first holiday that comes after the terrible and mournful day of the 9th of Av, since the 15th of each month is always a special day, because it is the day of the full moon.
The fifteenth of Av (in 2025 falls on August 9) is undoubtedly the most mysterious day of the Jewish calendar. If you look into the Shulchan Aruch (the code of Jewish law), you will not find any mention of any rituals on this day, except that the prayers on this day do not include tachanun (a prayer of repentance), as on other holidays, and that starting from the 15th of Av, more time must be devoted to studying the Torah, since the nights are getting longer, and “the night is made for study.” In addition, the Talmud tells us that many years ago on the fifteenth of Av, “Jerusalem girls would go out to dance in the vineyards” and that “everyone who was unmarried would go there” to choose a bride.
And the Talmud calls this day the greatest holiday of the year, along with Yom Kippur, giving the latter an honorable second place!
In fact, the 15th of Av cannot help but be a mystery. Falling on the full moon of the tragic month of Av, it is a holiday of the coming Liberation, and therefore a day whose essence is by definition unknowable to us, not yet liberated…
In the past, beautiful customs were associated with this day, for example, on the 15th of Av, the daughters of Israel went out to dance in the vineyards. It is said in the Talmud that absolutely all the girls went out in borrowed white dresses.
A mandatory condition was that the dress was borrowed from another girl. This was done so as not to embarrass the one who did not have a dress due to poverty. So that even girls from very poor families would not be ashamed, girls from the most noble families had to borrow a white dress for this evening. When a girl puts on a borrowed dress (from someone else’s shoulder), she does not feel very comfortable and the style may not be entirely to her taste. But she does not take this into account at all, the most important thing is that everyone should rejoice on this holiday, no one should be ashamed or sad. The meaning of this custom is explained in the Talmud, “Everyone who did not have a wife came here.” The most famous of these cases of choosing a wife is also described in the Tanakh, in the Book of Judges. And to this day, some try to put the chuppah on the 15th of Av, it is believed that this is a lucky day for lovers.
In an address dated May 27, 1984, the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains what the Jewish meaning of marriage is.
