Ta'anit 30 Reasons for Mourning; Reasons for Celebration

Most of today's daf details the 9th of Av.  We learn what we are permitted to do - and what is prohibited.  Many different calamities are commemorated on the 9th of Av, and we learn about these as well.    At the end of today's daf, we completely shift gears.  The 15th of Av is a day of celebration.  We learn what miracles and relationships are commemorated on that day.  As well, we learn some of the customs  of celebration.

Like many of the dapim of Masechet Ta'anit, we learn about how the rabbis make connections between their ritual practice and their reading of Torah.  Some of their connections seem logical; for example, we are told to lessen our pleasure on the eve of the 9th of Av, leading up to the fast.  This is interpreted as halving our portions of cooked food and wine, among other things.  We are told that this is not Torah law; it was taken from a baraita.  But we have none of those documents, nor do we have a direct quote.  So even the seemingly 'logical' interpretations are based on questionable evidence.  

I don't want to forget a couple of the stories shared in today's daf.  First, there is a midrash that teaches us that the first generation of Israelites in the desert were instructed to dig their own graves on the for the 9th of Av.  They would then sleep in those graves.  Some people would die every year.  On the year that ended that first generation's sojourn, no one died on the 9th of Av.  The Israelites found this strange and they continued sleeping in those graves for a week.  They assumed that they had gotten the date wrong and the 9th of Av was still to come.  On the 15th of Av, however, they could tell by the New Moon that they were 'off the hook'.  They rejoiced.

Another story tells us about the celebrations on the 15th of Av.  We learn in the Torah that the daughters of Zepholehad were told that they could inherit their father's land (even though they were his daughters and not his sons) but they had to marry within their tribe.  We learn that the rabbis interpret this limitation as lasting only one year.  From the following year, on the 15th of Av, Israelites were allowed to marry across tribes.  This is true cause for celebration.

I am continually struck by the creative interpretation, beauty, meaning, and seemingly random proofs  that our rabbis have recorded in the Talmud.