Showing posts with label Day of Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Day of Love. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Tu B'Av - Jewish traditional holiday - Day of Love

Tu B'Av

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tu B'Av
PikiWiki Israel 1112 hadera ילדות רוקדות.jpg
Dancing girls on Tu B'Av
Official nameHebrew: ט"ו באב
English: Fifteenth of Av
Observed byJews
TypeJewish religious and cultural
ObservancesTachanun and similar prayers are omitted from daily prayers
Date15th day of Av
2016 dateSunset, August 18 – Nightfall, August 19
2017 dateSunset, August 6 – Nightfall, August 7
2018 dateSunset, July 26 – Nightfall, July 27
2019 dateSunset, August 15 – Nightfall, August 16
Tu B'Av (Hebrew: ט"ו באב, the fifteenth of the month Av) is a minor Jewish holiday. In modern-day Israel, it is celebrated as a holiday of love (Hebrewחג האהבה‎‎, Hag HaAhava), similar to Valentine's Day.[1] It has been said to be a "great day for weddings".

Historical significance[edit]

According to the Mishna, Tu B'Av was a joyous holiday in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, marking the beginning of the grape harvest. Yom Kippur marked the end of the grape harvest. On both dates, the unmarried girls of Jerusalem dressed in white garments, and went out to dance in the vineyards (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Ta'anit 30b-31a).[2] That same section in the Talmud states that there were no holy days as happy for the Jews as Tu B'Av and Yom Kippur.[3] The holiday celebrated the wood-offering brought in the Temple (see Nehemiah 13:31). Josephus refers to it as the Feast of Xylophory ("Wood-bearing").[4]
Various reasons for celebrating on Tu B'Av are cited by the Talmud and Talmudic commentators:[5][6]
  • 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. (See Daughters of Zelophehad.)
  • That same year, the last of the generation of the sin of the spies, which had been forbidden to enter the Promised Land, found that they were not destined to die. For forty years, every Tisha B'av night, the Jews made graves for themselves in which they slept on Tisha B'Av; every year a proportion of them died. In the 40th year, the fifteen thousand who had remained from the first generation went to sleep in the graves and woke up the next day to their surprise. Thinking they made a mistake with the date, they did this until they reached Tu B'Av and saw a full moon. Only then did they know they were allowed to live.
  • The Tribe of Benjamin was allowed to intermarry with the other tribes after the incident of the Concubine of Gibeah (see Judges chapters 19–21).
  • Cutting of the wood for the main altar in the Temple was completed for the year.
  • King Hoshea of the northern kingdom removed the sentries on the road leading to Jerusalem, allowing the ten tribes to once again have access to the Temple.
  • The nights, traditionally the ideal time for Torah study, are lengthened again after the summer solstice, permitting more study.
  • The Roman occupiers permitted burial of the victims of the massacre at Bethar during the Bar Kochba rebellion. Miraculously, the bodies had not decomposed, despite exposure to the elements for over a year.

Modern times[edit]

Tu B'Av marks an informal "high" to counter the "low" of The Three Weeks leading up to Tisha B'Av. Tu B'Av does not have many established religious rituals associated with its celebration. However Tachanun is not said—either at mincha the day before or on the day itself—and a bride and groom traditionally do not fast if their wedding falls on Tu B'Av. [7]
In modern times, it has become a romantic Jewish holiday, often compared to Valentine's Day, and has been said to be a "great day for weddings, commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows, or proposing". Also, "It is a day for romance, explored through singing, dancing, giving flowers, and studying." [8]

"Almost every message of Yeshua was about FORGIVENESS..." ONE FOR ISRAEL


Aug. 7, 2017 

Dr Erez Soref President of  ONE FOR ISRAEL 
Shalom!

This week we have an amazing story of a Jewish man who was beaten into a coma, but as he came to know Yeshua, he slowly came to the shocking realization that he must also forgive his attacker.

"Something in my heart began to change", explains Jonathan. "Almost every message of Yeshua is about forgiveness - he says that we must love our enemies bless those who curse us and do good to those who persecute us."


Can you imagine if everyone around here actually started to do what Yeshua said? To love their enemies, to pray for those who are persecuting them? To forgive deep wounds and bless the ones who caused it? The Middle East conflict would be over! 

Yeshua holds the true key to peace, and so we will not stop proclaiming his Gospel of Peace - the true liberating force in the universe. Forgiveness and freedom! Peace between man and God, man and his brother! Moreover, we are committed to discipling sons and daughters of the King here in Israel, both Jew and Arab, training both new and mature believers in righteousness.

Whether people come from a Jewish, Muslim, or nominally Christian background, we all need to grow in our faith so that we can live lives worthy of him, to truly live as he called us to, and to correctly divide the word of truth.

"Make every effort to present yourself before God
as tried and true, as an unashamed worker
cutting a straight path with the word of truth."
(2 Timothy 2:15)



STUDENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT: 
DAVID INGZHIASHVILI

This is David, one of our students in the Russian program, and pastor of not one but two Russian speaking congregations! He was eager to gain proper academic training in theology, and we have loved getting to know him.

Although an upstanding pastor today, life was not always so squeaky clean for David.

He was born in Georgia and immigrated to Israel at the age of 21, but due to the great difficulties of adapting to a new country, David began to use heavy drugs and became deeply addicted for eight years. David's life was completely destroyed; relations with his family and friends seemed hopelessly ruined. But one day he visited local congregation in Haifa where he was touched by God. From that moment, David's life began to change. 

Soon, David went to a Messianic rehabilitation center, where God began to work in his life. Instead of suffering the excruciating experience of coming off drugs "cold turkey" the Lord made it so that David fell asleep and woke up only after nine days! After that, the Lord healed him of Hepatitis C, restored relations with his family and friends, and gave him a wife and two daughters. Today David is the pastor of the of the "Living Israel" congregation in Rishon leZion, near Tel Aviv. Within two years he opened three congregations in the city, two of which he is the senior pastor. David has a vision to plant a fourth congregation, after that a fifth, sixth, seventh, and so on, so that Russian-speaking Israelis will know that there is a Living God in Israel.


Why Bother Reading the Lists in the Bible?

You don't have to go far in either the Hebrew Scriptures or the New Testament before you hit them - those lists of unpronounceable names! The lists and genealogies in the Bible have been a source of much consternation (and sometimes merriment) as hapless readers struggle through exotic and multi-syllabled Middle Eastern names in their Bible study groups. Do we really have to bother with these lists? Is it so bad to just skip them? Continue reading...


Tu B'Av: A Day of Love in Jewish Tradition
The ancient tradition of the Jewish "Day of Love" is on "Tu B'Av" or, the 15th of the Jewish month of Av, which like all Jewish days, starts at sunset the day before, and continues until sunset the following day. The theme of love and marriage is so important in Judaism, and indeed the Bible, not only to be fruitful and multiply, but because it manifests the plans, heart and nature of God, right before our eyes. The very definition of true love. Continue reading...
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