Through the Dances of Tu B'Av All Wars are Nullified • Tu B'Av in the Teachings

Why specifically on Tu B'Av (the 15th of Av) do they go out to whirl and dance? Why must a girl who brought a very expensive diamond dress wear a dress of rags? What is the connection between Tu B'Av and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and how is it related to the nullification of wars? Before you is a fascinating, special, and interesting lesson from the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a on the greatness of the day of Tu B'Av—the day of dances:

On Tu B'Av, all the daughters of Israel go out and dance in the vineyards—all the daughters of Israel! Throughout the entire Land of Israel, a "Shuvu Banim police force" passes through, bringing everyone out of their homes, and everyone is obligated to dance—all the girls, for fourteen hours, from six o'clock until eight, wearing dresses that are all white, white as snow, all the dresses white as snow. One girl traveled to China and brought a dress worth two million dollars, white as snow, pure as snow, set with ruby, topaz, and emerald, turquoise, sapphire, and diamond, jacinth, agate, and amethyst, beryl [the stones of the High Priest's breastplate]—two billion dollars! She comes to Jerusalem, to her neighborhood, goes to the neighborhood Rabbi, and he tells her the dress is *pasul* (invalid). The dress is *pasul*? Why? Does it have *shaatnez* (a forbidden mixture of wool and linen)? What? I saw how they wove the fabric, I was present when they sheared the wool from the sheep, what is the flaw? Why is this dress *pasul*? She began to cry, she cried oceans. The Mishnah says at the end of Tractate Taanis that it is only permitted to dance then in "borrowed" white garments. And there was one girl from Shuvu Banim who found a white dress in a *tzfardea* (a large trash bin), in the refuse; she laundered it, she rinsed it—they tell the rich girl to give her dress that she bought in China to the girl who found one in the *tzfardea*—*Tzippor De'ah* (a bird of knowledge)—and you, who bought a dress in China, will give her your dress. "I bought this in China! In Beijing!" It doesn't interest us; it is written in the Mishnah, "borrowed white garments," only borrowed white garments! Each one takes a dress from her friend—the daughter of a king with the daughter of a High Priest, the daughter of a High Priest with the daughter of a deputy.

Why do we dance on Tu B'Av? Because it is Adam Kadmon of Adam Kadmon (the highest primordial spiritual realm), for then we merit Adam Kadmon, then we ascend to Adam Kadmon, then we reach Adam Kadmon. On Tu B'Av, the souls of Israel were created, all of whom are in the name of *Av* (72) of Adam Kadmon, all of them from Adam Kadmon of Adam Kadmon. "The mighty of Moab, trembling (*ra'ad*) shall seize them"—*ra'ad* (trembling) is the connection of Rachel and Leah, as *ra'ad* is the numerical value (*gematria*) of Rachel and Leah. Just as there are *Tefillin* (phylacteries), so too there are shoes; the *Tefillin* of Rachel are in the shoes of Leah, in the heels of Leah, in the sole of Leah. "What Wisdom made a crown for its head, Humility made a heel for its sole"—these are the soles, this is the sole. The work of a person is to be a "sole," "And it shall come to pass as a consequence (*ekev* - also meaning 'heel')", to be a sole, not to take one's head out of the Gemara (Talmud), not to take one's head out of the book. "Issachar is a strong-boned donkey"—in his life, he never took his head out of the book.

So, on the fifteenth of Av, when all the daughters of Israel go out and dance in the vineyards, the girls only need to dance; for twenty-four hours they dance, and in this way, they sweeten the *dinim* (judgments). Therefore, on Yom Kippur, they only dance; through the dances, all wars are nullified. The fifteenth of Av is exactly like Yom Kippur. Regarding the fifteenth of Av, it is written that it is exactly like Yom Kippur; therefore, it is written that it is a day of dancing. For with the girls, everything is forgiven in a second; it is not like with the men, who need to cry and sit on the ground and finish the *Shas* (the entire Talmud) so that they will have atonement. For a girl, everything is forgiven in a thousandth of a second! The girls have no sins; therefore, for them, everything is forgiven with one thought, with one good reflection, one regret—everything is forgiven! They were such *tzaddikos* (righteous women) that they only go out in dances. They only go out in dances; Yom Kippur is a day of dancing. During the time of the First Temple, it was [a day] of dancing; during the Second, it was [a day of] dancing. Now we are in the destruction, but when the Third Temple is built, it will turn into a day of dancing, this Yom Kippur. But only for the girls, not for the boys. The boys will sit and cry, and the girls will go out in dances, dancing in the vineyards!!