For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 121
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The Gemara on our daf brings the last Mishna in Massekhet Ta’anit, which closes with a discussion of two of the happiest days on the Jewish calendar – Yom Kippur and T”u b’Av, the 15th of Av, when the daughters of Jerusalem would go out to the dance in the vineyards in borrowed white clothing (so that girls who were poor would not be embarrassed), calling out to the young men suggesting that they choose wives from among them.
Rav Yehuda quotes Shmuel as saying that it was the day that women who had inherited land were released from the restrictions limiting them to marry only members of their tribe.
Rabba bar bar Ḥana suggests that it was the day that the tribe of Binyamin was permitted to marry. According to the story at the end of Sefer Shofetim (see Chapter 21) wives needed to be found for the remnants of the tribe of Binyamin, which had almost been wiped out.
We explore the wonderful roots of this holiday.