From historic events to contemporary orchards

After listing and discussing the five events that occurred on Tammuz 17 and Tisha b’Av, the final mishnah of the tractate Taanit (presumably seeking to end on a happier note) jumps forward a few days and states: “There was never a day as festive (yom tov) for the Jewish nation as the fifteenth of the month of Av and Yom Kippur.”

The Mishnah continues that on these two occasions: “The daughters of Jerusalem … dressed in white … would go out and dance in the vineyards.” Why did they do that? The Talmud (Taanit 31a) fills in between the lines: “Whoever lacked a wife would go there to [gaze and] find one.”

In other words, the Fifteenth of Av was a major matchmaking day, and so was, amazingly, Yom Kippur. Now, the vital importance to Jewish continuity of aiding marriages to happen is obvious.  Nevertheless, does that justify claiming that the Fifteenth of Av is a greater holiday than, for example, the three Torah-mandated “pilgrim” festivals, Pesach, Shavuot or Succot, with their immense gatherings at the Batei Mikdash?

The Talmud itself expresses astonishment. “Yom Kippur is clearly [special]…because it is a day of forgiveness and pardon … But what is the significance of the Fifteenth of Av?” (Taanit 30b)

The Talmud goes on to answer its own question. Different sages recall five joyous historical events which occurred on the Fifteenth of Av (in counterpoint to the five calamities that occurred on each of Tammuz 17 and the Ninth (“Tisha”) of Av mentioned earlier in the Mishnah), plus one custom that arose in the years of the Batei Mikdash in Yerushalayim.