Yom Kippur and Eros: Marc Gafni

post two in series of Yom Kippur Posts:

Interestingly enough, Yom Kippur, along with Tu’be’Av, the fifteenth of Av, which is a summertime Holiday of Love, is thought of by the Talmud as the day for erotic matchmaking: “Rabban Shimon ben Gamlieil said: There were no holidays in Israel like the Fifteenth of Av (Tube’Av) and Yom Kippur. For on those days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white garments, so as not to embarrass someone who did not have them (that is why everyone had to borrow — the erotic and the ethical)….And the daughters of Jerusalem would ho out and dance in the [olive tree] plantations….And so it is written: “Go out and gaze, o daughters of Zion, upon the king Solomon, at the crown his mother gave him on the day of his wedding and the day of the rejoicing of his heart” (Song of Songs chapter 3). ‘The day of his wedding’ — this is the giving of the Torah. ‘And the day of the rejoicing of his heart’ — this is the building of the Temple’ (tractate Ta’anit 26b). The ties between Yom Kippur, eros, and the Temple, are all included in this one Talmudic comment.

marc gafni
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