Dance of love in Tu Bab

The earliest biblical event that encompasses a choreographic-dance status is rooted in the period of the judges, after the act of Mistress on the Hill. The Benjaminites abducted girls from the daughters of Shiloh who went out to go to hell in order to marry them to wives and thus save the tribe from destruction

Tu Bab is known in our places as Valentine's Day or Valentine's Day, something like St. Valentine's Day among the nations of the "Western" world. It is therefore interesting to trace the roots of Valentine's Day, or alternatively - Valentine's Day in our places. The ancient, initial, somewhat embryonic source, hidden between the folds of the biblical period, but opened, for the purpose of "warming up" only in a conditional text, from the mouth of the president of the Sanhedrin Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel, who testifies to an ancient and sacred custom, in this language: "There were no good days for Israel for about five Ten of Av ... and the girls of Jerusalem go out (then) and dance (= dance). And what would they say? (In the exam saying and singing): 'Young man, raise your eyes and see what you choose for yourself?! ..." (from the Tanit XNUMXth XNUMXth lesson). This text will be explained and analyzed later. The whole point now is to note a courtship dance of the girls of Israel, the free ones among them, in order to be "captured" by the free-singles, whose desire for matrimonial acquaintance is great and burning among them.

The following "testimony" is more than two thousand years removed from the conditional text, and in it, beyond smiling and condescension, there is an interesting truth. And here I am, a "fifty-year-old" in one of the respectable high schools in Bata A (Iruni XNUMX, at that time on Maza Street), and the philosophy teacher gives us a reprimand lesson concerning our debauchery, our hedonism, and our "emptiness", emphasizing, among other things, the toxicity of ballroom dancing , and takes the trouble, doubtless with a fake smile, doubtless cynicism, to define the "slow" dance, in quite blunt language, when I ask to refine the wording as follows: "Slow is a mutual crouching in the space of four bumps".

Over time, the interpretation of Dylan's statement became paler for me, or perhaps I found my own, somewhat refined interpretation of it, following thorough research I carried out on the subject of physical activity and its meanings in the ancient era, when the choreographic, rhythmic activity, i.e. dancing, is anchored in it, and my formulation is beautiful even today. Well, couple dances legitimize physical contact (although inside it is pure and innocent, principled, with hidden intentions, manipulative), when under other circumstances the physical contact could be interpreted as sexual harassment.

So what is the difference between the conditional text and the statement by Lakman and the author's personal interpretation? The answer is hidden between the folds of the desire to create some kind of interaction between the sexes, one that may end with the statement - "and he will say to a good stick".

The conditional text seems ancient, but older than it is the biblical, biblical period, which embraces within it very ancient chronological layers, and before we get into the thick of it, we will illuminate a very important point in connection with the ancient dance.

The ancient dance found its expression, in most cases and ways, tied in the umbilical cord to religion, faith and worship. The religious ceremonies mainly consisted of diverse and energetic physical movements, in different rhythms, which were intended to bring the entire ritual class to the peak of ecstasy and release, this is the moment of transcendence in which the feeling of the almost unmediated contact with God, with the gods, is masked, and ends in physical and mental purification - the catharsis. The entire ritual was led by men mainly, priests, sorcerers and other shamans, but the dance, which occupied the center of activity, was led by the women, and why? Well, in a woman, unlike a man, the sense of rhythm is prominent, including the refined movements. Also, since a central element of the worship was fertility, it is obvious that the woman is the one who will lead it, and indeed, as in ancient cultures in our region, the place of the woman stands out in the field of biblical dance.

An interesting layer that sheds important light on the whole affair is the observation of the behavior of animals and the adoption of some rules from them, such as were assimilated in ancient society. It is about the eye-catching and interesting courtship dances that existed and still exist among groups of mammals and even reptiles and insects, which constituted some kind of imitation factor in the ancient, more prehistoric age, and had, so it seems, something primal, even enchanted. Here you have the primordial, embryonic foundation of the dance and everything else - history.

The earliest biblical event that encapsulates a choreographic-dance status is rooted in the period of the judges, after the act of concubine in Gibeah, when the sons of Benjamin slaughtered twenty-two thousand people from Israel in one day, the sons of Israel swore in a binding ritual at a well-known religious center, in the Mitzvah, that they would not give their daughters to the sons of Benjamin as punishment for the terrible bloodshed they caused. Only a very short time passed and the Israelites learned to understand that an entire tribe could be wiped out from among them, that is the tribe of Benjamin, if they do not find an adequate solution, but their oath in the sacred vow cannot be wiped out just like that. The proposal that was accepted in the end was this: "Here is the feast of Jehovah in Shiloh from Meem Yamima, which is from the north of Bethel to the east of the sun to the track that goes up from Bethel to Shechema and sweeps to Lavona. And they commanded the sons of Benjamin to say: Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and you saw, and lo, if the daughters of Shiloh went out to the sand in the sands, and you went out of the vineyards, and you kidnapped each one of his wives from the daughters of Shiloh, and you went to the land of Benjamin, and it happened that their fathers or their brothers would come to fight with us, and we said to them: Stop them, because we did not take anyone His wife is in the war, because you didn't let them now be blamed. And the sons of Benjamin did so, and they took wives for their number from the women who had plundered, and they went and returned to their inheritance and built the cities and dwelt in them" (Judges 23-19 XNUMX).

The picture revealed before our eyes is undoubtedly instructive and reflects drivers who existed in ancient civilizations, and anthropologically even sometimes in our contemporary world in one form or another. The vow that decreed eternal celibacy for the sons of Benjamin could have been violated by a sacred and mythological alternative, i.e. - "Jehovah's festival at Shiloh". Shiloh was one of the ritual centers at the time, if not the dominant one and by virtue of that it was there to cancel existing vows. Rivas, unmarried girls, were found for a long time, long, long before pop-up Arabs and modern dating sites along the lines of "love me". The sacred place radiated a kind of liberalization of romantic attachments of the ancient era. The abduction is not supposed to be brutal and forced, but rather a kind of game ("foreplay"), in which there was apparent mutual consent between the two parties, and even today dance evenings in couples are built on providing a certain legitimacy and it is acceptable for both parties to create a framework of common touches. The origins of those "physio-romantic" Arabs are rooted in the ancient era, such as the traditional event in Shiloh. It must be assumed that meetings of the above type took place in connection with agricultural events such as the grape harvest. And certainly the connection between wine and love was known in biblical times and expressed in many descriptions, such as in the Song of Songs.

In any case, and in a very interesting parallel to the living world of courtship dances and courtship contests, when they seek to capture the ideal man, the girls would come prepared to those meetings, each with their own personal choreography, and sort of compete with each other for the beautiful and well-rounded physical display. We can, by the way, parallel this with the historical foundations of belly dancing in the Middle Eastern world.

Worthy of note is the fact that a deep-rooted practice in the field of dance was enough to cancel a sacred, almost royal vow, and this teaches us about the great importance they attributed to dance as a lever for reproductive engagement, along the lines of "And he said to a good stick!"

Interesting is the fact that "kidnapping" myths unfolded throughout history and found expression in different societies, in Africa, among Circassian, Georgian, Bedouin groups, in the Ivory Coast, and more.

Specularia for the aforementioned specific event is revealed before our eyes in two later compositions, in Jeremiah and in the Song of Songs. Jeremiah gives us the following description on one of the occasions: "Your son is yet to be built and the virgin of Israel is being built." Another drum beat and you went out dancing games. You will also mistake vineyards in the mountains of Samaria. They planted those who planted and blasphemed" (Jeremiah no 3-4). The prophet wishes to present an optimistic vision and uses allegorically the same courtship dance of the virgin girls. These are the ones who go out to "capture" the men in a "game dance" and are accompanied by percussion instruments in connection with the grape harvest period. This allegorization points to the explosiveness of the courtship dance among Israeli society.

The author of the Song of Songs as a parable of moral inhibitions and even in an allegorical display reaches a conclusion similar to the previous text, and thus he states: "The returnees of the Shulamite. Come back and see you. What will you see in Shulamit, like the pain of the hearts" (Song of Songs 1:XNUMX). Beyond the mention of the dancer's name, her attractive, poised appearance is noted, against the background of the suitors' shouts of admiration and encouragement. The second half of the text reflects both substantively and technically the answer dance, that is - question and answer as well as a choreographic performance. We cannot rule out the possibility that the same "Shulami" led the dancing camp/group.

Another evidence of the women's dancing emerges from the text in the Psalms: "Singers advanced after musicians among drumming maidens" (Psalms 26) and can be interpreted in two ways - the status of a festival or it is taken from the atmosphere of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In any case, the source points to a human structure consisting of a vocal, instrumental and choreographic aspect.

The bridge between the dance of the virgins, the examination of the encounter between the free and the free, and what is accepted in our places as Valentine's Day or the Valentine's Day, was forged during the Second Temple period, probably also due to the influence of Hellenistic culture (such as the Dionysian celebrations) and Roman (the Bacchanalian celebrations), and was documented in the words of the president of the Sanhedrin, Raban Shimon Ben Gamaliel, in the Mishnah Ta'anit as follows: "There were no good days for Israel until the fifteenth of Av... when the daughters of Jerusalem go out with a white vessel, Shaolin, so as not to shame those who do not have one... and the daughters of Jerusalem go out and are sick (dancing), and what would they say? (In the test of saying and singing): 'Young man, raise your eyes and see what you choose for yourself?' 'Don't let your eyes be drawn. Keep your eyes on the family' (as the privileged say). 'Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. A woman who fears the Lord will glorify (Proverbs 30:XNUMX) (Ta'anit XNUMX:XNUMX).

It was not for nothing that the president of the Sanhedrin stood behind the statement (one who is "perceived" in the sources as the one who impresses the audience in the joy of the Beit HaShuaba with physical exercises that require strength, endurance and a degree of acrobatics - Talmud Babli Sukkah Neg p. XNUMX), since this is an ancient custom, mythological-something , which is heavily associated with a holy site, at the time in Shiloh and now in Jerusalem. And let's not forget that the subject of marriages in ancient society, especially in Jewish society, was by necessity without an alternative, and therefore the custom took on a new importance.
The Babylonian Talmud refers to this in its own way, and says: "The daughters of Israel go out and get sick in the vineyards. Tana, he who does not have a wife will turn there. It is attributed to them (among the dancers) they would say: 'Boy, let your eyes... (as appears in the Mishnah above)'. Tano Rabnan: beauties among them, what would they say? : 'Give your eyes to beauty, that there is no woman but to beauty'. attributed to them, what would they say? 'Give your eyes to the family, since there is nothing but boys.' Ugliest of them, what would they say? 'Take from them for heaven's sake, provided you adorn it with gold'" (Ta'anit no p. XNUMX).

First of all - the Babylonian Talmud connects to the event at Shila and indicates that it is the vacant place in the vineyard, where dances were held at the end of the harvest, and calls it the "Vineyard Dance". Indeed, the grape harvest takes place every calendar year, between the months of Tammuz and Elul.
Second - every half of the month, being white in its fullness, was seen in the ancient civilizations as a day/night of cosmic, magical and even magical importance, as well as in the Israeli tradition, and it is therefore no wonder that on the day of the XNUMXth of Av, they believed that mending would come to broken hearts.
Thirdly - it must be assumed that these are prepared and known songs in advance, that the singers, and perhaps even in the choir, would burst their throats, and, along with their choreographic skills, recruit the available boys.
Fourthly - the sages do not intend to point out that the woman is evident only in her beauty, but alongside her other virtues she has beauty pegs and side lines.
Fifth - among all the free jams there is a whole spectrum of people longing for the "catch".
Sixth - the white clothes indicate purity and grace, and for those of them, who would not be able to purchase their own dance clothes, they would receive the white veil on loan. to say that the entire community took part in the condemned custom.
Seventh - behind the uninformative testimony, seemingly simple, is hidden empathy and indirect support of the sages in the attempt, physical on the surface, for a romantic pairing between the two parties.

The Jerusalem Talmud slightly changes the wording and even adds its own: "There was a king's daughter who asked (the garment) from the daughter of a high priest. The daughter of a high priest asks from the daughter of a king. The Kaoruts would say: 'Don't set your eyes on a son' and the Naots would say: 'Set your eyes on the family'. He also says: "She saw and saw the daughters of Zion like King Solomon in the crown that his mother adorned for him on the day of his wedding and on the day of his heart's joy" (Ta'aniot chapter XNUMX set p. XNUMX). The crown originates from the Hellenistic custom of various celebrations, and the one that symbolized the element of success and victory, which later evolved into the bridal crown around the Hinoma.

Tu Bab on Valentine's Day was completely forgotten during the Jewish diaspora throughout Europe, as well as many other customs, and was revived during the twentieth century, mainly in the working settlement, when it calls for dance meetings in general. Over time, something like in recent years, this day received the Valentine's touch and was leveraged by internet dating sites.

The article was first published on August 3, 2012