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distanced and masked outside. 
Rav Nachman’s and Shmuel’s 
answers also speak to a larger 
re-ability to connect after over a 
year of living apart.
The third- and fourth-cen-
tury rabbinic sage Ulla answers 
that the wicked king of 
Northern Israel, Yeravam ben 
Navat, stationed guards at the 
roads to prevent his subjects 
from traveling to the Temple 
in Jerusalem for the festivals. 
It was on a Tu b’
Av that a later 
king of Israel, Hosea, removed 
those guards, enabling all who 
wanted to travel to the Temple 
to do so again.

COVID SEPARATION
During spring 2020, our syn-
agogues were closed due to 
COVID. Afterwards, most of 
those that reopened had limited 
capacity and/or were outdoors. 
Non-Orthodox synagogues had 
all of their services — including 
High Holiday services — over 
Zoom. Even shuls with indoor 
services incorporated social dis-
tancing mechanisms like distant 
seating, multiple minyanim, and 
even barriers between the ba’al 
kriah (Torah reader) and oleh 
(one who recites the blessings).
Despite these safety mecha-
nisms, many older and immu-
nocompromised congregants 
still didn’t feel safe attending. 
Even the Ukrainian city of 
Uman, the resting place of 
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, was 
unavailable for the traditional 
Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage last 
year. Shuls are finally able to 
start relaxing their restrictions 
and enable us to return to shul 
as (almost) normal.

COVID had also prevented 
us from traveling in general. 
Passover 2020 was the first year 
I’ve ever celebrated the Passover 
sedarim away from my par-
ents. For the past year and a 
half, many others have also 
avoided visiting family. This 

is aside from the many family 
vacations that were canceled or 
never planned in the first place. 
Now that we are beginning to 
travel again, Tu b’
Av serves as 
a celebration of our ability to 
visit family again and restore 
these spiritual and emotional 
connections.
The third-century Babylonian 
sage Rav Matanah explains 
that when the Beitar rebellion 
against Rome was put down, 
the Romans tried to make them 
into an example by refusing the 
Jews permission to bury the 
bodies. It was on Tu b’
Av that 
the Romans finally permitted 
burials. In fact, Matanah teach-
es, G-d created a miracle, pre-
venting the bodies from rotting. 
This light within the darkness is 
what led the rabbis to compose 
and institute the fourth blessing 
of the Grace after Meals.
At the worst point of COVID 
in New York, morgues ran out 
of space to hold onto bodies. 
Over the past year and a half, 
few if any family members 
were able to attend the funeral. 
Instead, funerals and shivah 
visits were held over Zoom. As 
helpful as Zoom has been over 
this time, Zoom funerals and 
shivah visits could not possibly 
offer mourners the same degree 
of closure and comfort as being 
together with the deceased and 
others in person.
Only now, with Tu b’
Av 

approaching, are mourners 
mostly comfortable with 
attending funerals and accept-
ing shivah visits in person. 
This return toward closure and 
comfort enables us in this gen-
eration to thank G-d as the One 
Who is good and does good.
Finally, Rabbah and Rav 
Yosef (of fourth-century 
Babylonia) explain that Tu b’
Av 
celebrates the end of the sum-
mer. In the days of the Temple, 
they would use summer wood 
for fires on the Altar (since 
summer wood is dryer, it burns 
better). By Tu b’
Av, they would 
stop cutting firewood, since the 
sun doesn’t beat down as hard 
after that point. Similarly, by 
Tu b’
Av, the days begin to grow 
shorter and the nights grow 
longer. As Rashi notes, since the 
nights are longer, people have 
more time to study Torah, as 
the workdays become shorter.

BACK TO SCHOOL
We parents of young children 
know that learning over spring 
and summer 2020 greatly suf-
fered. Most children (including 
mine) had trouble learning 
online. Even older students 
with access to computers and 
wi-fi found it difficult to learn 
effectively from home.
By the fall, schools were more 
prepared, and most yeshivah 
students learned in person. At 
the same time, students and 

teachers would doubtless say 
that COVID and social distanc-
ing requirements hanging over 
their heads made learning more 
difficult.
Clearly, over the past year, 
most of our children learned 
much less than they would have 
otherwise. Tu b’
Av, therefore, 
expresses anticipation for a 
school year more or less back to 
normal.
Even for adults, COVID 
has limited the amount we’ve 
been able to teach and/or study 
Torah. Speaking for myself, 
most of the shiurim and d’vrei 
Torah I give are in person and 
over Shabbos and yom tov. 
 From last March until a few 
weeks ago, I had greatly missed 
giving them. Even those giving 
and attending shiurim over 
Zoom during the week would 
mostly agree that they simply 
don’t replace learning in per-
son. Those of us happy about 
regaining in-person Torah 
study identify with this dimen-
sion of Tu b’
Av.
Before COVID, I was famil-
iar with this Gemara (I’ve given 
shiurim on it), but I could 
never emotionally get why the 
restoration from loss found in 
these examples should really 
add up to making Tu b’
Av one 
of the happiest days of the year. 
I can now understand.
After such a long time of our 
lives being disrupted, returning 
to these seemingly small aspects 
of normalcy make us much 
happier. 
Indeed, after facing such 
loss in these profound ways, 
returning to life “B.C.
” fills us 
with similar joy to that which 
previous generations felt on Tu 
b’
Av. 

Rabbi David Polsky is a rabbi, educa-

tor and kashrut professional living in 

Southfield with his wife and two daugh-

ters. He can be reached at rabbipolsky@

gmail.com.

