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Tu B'Av
Sources & Philosophy
An Assemblage of Love Proverbs
As Happy as the Fifteenth of Av
Kibbutz Midrash for Tu B’Av
Love as an Art
Tu B’Av's Story in the Book of Judges
The Festival of Dancing in the Vineyards
Forgiveness & Absolution
Tu B’Av in the Mishnah
A Holiday of Nature in Israel
Once Again They Made it a Holiday
When Moon and Sun Met on Tu B’Av

An Assemblage of Love Proverbs

Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel. [Genesis 29:18]

 

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. [Proverbs 4:6]

 

Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends? [Song of Songs 1:7]

 

Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. [Song of Songs 2:4-5]

 

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. [Song of Songs 2:7]

 

All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city — Have you seen the one my heart loves? [Song of Songs 3:1-3]

 

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you — if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love. [Song of Songs 5:8]

 

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned. [Song of Songs 8:7]

 

Any love that is dependent on something, when that thing perishes, the love perishes. But [a love] that is not dependent on something, does not ever perish. What's [an example of] a love that is dependent on something? That's the love of Amnon and Tamar. And [a love] that is not dependent on something?  That's the love of David and Jonathan. [Mishnah Avot 5:16]

 

R. Yosi ben Hanina said: Love unaccompanied by rebuke is not love.  [Genesis Rabbah 54]

 

If only my heart could be made of glass, then you could see my love with your eyes. [Solomon ibn Gabirol]

 

Wake my friend from you slumber; wakeful, I shall satiate myself with your image; if you dream of someone kissing your lips, I shall be the interpreter of your dreams. [R. Yehuda Halevi]

 

Love blinds the eyes from seeing faults, and hatred blinds the eyes from seeing virtues. [R. Moses ibn Ezra]

 

O gentle Romeo, If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. [William Shakespeare]

 

A heart without love is like a wallet without money. [Moses Mendelssohn]

 

To love and be loved, is the most exalted blessing on earth. [Heinrich Heine]

 

Love is hidden in the innermost point of every man’s heart, and there is no man who has never had an hour of love and longing. [Rabbi Aharon of Karlin)

 

Reverence is from man, but love is the gift of G-d. [R. Aryeh Leib Gur]

 

Not even the highest of my mental achievements can be compared with a moment of love. [R. Nachman of Breslov]

 

There is no stronger connection nor any greater communion in the world than a love relationship, whose arrows pierce the hearts of lovers, until neither thing nor place can divide between them; and even though they are separate bodies, there is nothing to stand in the way of the spiritual bond between them. [R. Baruch of Kosov]

 

Sensual love tricks you into leaving celestial love. [Franz Kafka]

 

A high level in love is... not knowing that we love; this is love in its purest form. [H.N. Bialik]

 

The small man becomes greater through his love, and the great man adds to his greatness. [M.Y. Berdyczewski]

 

Love is the strongest illusion—the illusion of illusions—and he who gets to the bottom of the secret of the ‘game of love’, reaches the most internal point of skepticism. [Y.H. Brenner]

 

They both loved collecting stars. The moon loved them both. For the moon still loves to love lovers. [Alexander Penn]

 

To love you more than I love you now, after taking upon yourself the heaviest burden a woman could take upon herself for a man she loves; I know of no man on earth who could love more. If love is great and deep, it has the ability to bring happiness; so, dear Paula, be you the happiest. [David Ben-Gurion]

 

In love you find the paradox of two souls becoming one, but nevertheless remaining two. [Erich Fromm]

 

Happy be our love in its torments, as it itself is the reward for the torments. [Leah Goldberg]

 

A man’s entire life is nothing more than his first love. [Pinchas Sadeh]

 

I count my loves secretly, like a miser. [Yehuda Amichai]

 

I loved you so much I couldn’t tell you; I couldn’t tell you because I loved you so much. [David Avidan]

 

I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox. [Woody Allen]

 

My love, as I have already told you, is made only of loneliness. [Yehonatan Gefen]

 

No, I will not let you touch; what is that hiding within your heart? I have yet to find out, if it is love. [Kobi Oz]

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