When most people think of Tu B’Av (the 15th of Av), they think of it as the Jewish version of February 14th: about finding a partner to love. Instead of fancy restaurants and presents, like Valentine’s Day, Tu B’Av is traditionally celebrated by dancing in fields. Young women would borrow white dresses from their friends and get together, hoping to attract the attention of the one they are destined to marry. The borrowing of the dresses is to ensure a level playing field: more wealthy young women borrowed from those less fortunate and vice versa. This way, each would be judged on their reputation and chein (innate charm) alone.
Given the global pandemic currently underway, it may not be the best year for gathering together for the purposes of dancing together and finding your soulmate.
So suppose this Tu B’Av, we turn our focus inward? What if this Tu B’Av one had a chance to learn how to love themselves, to find a way to let go of negativity in regards to oneself and be free to love not only others, but themselves as well? What if one could use this Tu B’Av to learn to love and appreciate their bodies and souls through the Jewish experiences in their lives?
Mitsui Collective is hosting an online Self-Love and Liberation Festival on Tu B’Av. The purpose of this event is to provide conversation (and hopefully both physical and intellectual answers) to the above questions.
I spoke with Yoshi Silverstein, director and founder of Mitsui Collective, for a little over an hour the other day. He’s a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew with a background that includes martial arts, ski racing, music, and teaching, plus a graduate degree in landscape architecture. He’s looking to deepen and expand the kind of self-care, wellness, and movement practices typically more associated with secular or Eastern methodologies – but in an authentic, Jewish way.
Going into this conversation, I admit I was more than a little skeptical. Judaism, if you ask most people, is a religion of the mind. Jews are called ‘the People of the Book’, there is emphasis on prayer and study- but there is also emphasis on concepts such as tikkun olam (repair of the world) and chesed (kindness). These two concepts in particular are extremely physical in application. To make the world a better place, to stretch one’s hand out to help another – these are actions. The end goal is to provide answers that are applicable in everyday life and Judaism to the following questions:
What does Jewish movement look like?
How can we experience Judaism with our bodies?
What impact does those experiences have on our bodies?
Using methods such as yoga, martial arts, dance, art, and nature itself, Yoshi looks to connect the two to bring about a more complete Jewish experience on an individual level, and in a setting that people feel completely safe and free to do so. Mitsui Collective strives to bring those who feel estranged close by embracing diversity and acknowledging various representations: marginalized Jewish communities, Jews of Color, of Choice, those who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, interfaith/intergroup Jews and those of all socioeconomic stratas.
No questions at the door: if you identify as Jewish, or even if you aren’t actually Jewish but the work and practice compel you to get involved, Mitsui Collective is the place for you. Shalom, and welcome.
This almost sounds like a pipe dream. But the longer Yoshi talks and I listen (which is no hardship whatsoever), I begin to think that if anyone could make this happen, it would be him.
His resume is extensive, and his life experiences since he was young make him uniquely qualified for the undertaking. Nature, outdoor life, movement, and the need to make the world a better place by helping others was (and still is) a part of his everyday life.
And he wants to help make it a part of other people’s lives as well. “The paradox of self-care,” Yoshi says, “is that we can’t actually achieve it by ourselves. We need the support of others. Which means that if we really care about enabling each other to each achieve our full potential, we need to be creating communities of care with the kind of built structure and support to facilitate that kind of learning, growth, and nourishment.”
The word mitsui in ancient Aramaic means ‘activation of potential’. A word that is more common in use, hamotzi (“to bring forth”), is derived from the same root word. Mitsui Collective aims to do just that – by planting tiny seeds of expansion of thought, expansion of experience not just individually but with others who share your same identities.
Ultimately, (ideally sooner rather than later) Yoshi hopes to build and open a single space where one can experience multiple principals – physical movement, engagement with nature, access to nutritious and locally sourced food and interaction with others – all in one location. He described these nested experiences with the metaphor of “stacking functions,” a principle borrowed from the world of permaculture design, wherein minimal or more focused inputs yield richer and more bountiful outputs through thoughtful whole-systems design.
Yoshi sees this as a “contemporary Jewish third space” built around communities of care that put Jewish values, ideas, and practices into place all seven days of the week. The kind of space where one could get in a morning workout then sit with others for a delicious and filling breakfast before heading into to work; or coworkers could have meetings in the outdoor garden space or welcome guests for coffee in the attached community cafe; or parents could join a movement class with other adults after work while their kids join the afterschool program centered around experiential Jewish learning, after which all the parents and kids sit together for a shared dinner before heading home for homework and bedtime.
This space doesn’t exist yet, so in the meantime, Tu B’Av – whether celebrated individually or communally – is a day of mitsui taking place in the online space. Loving oneself is the greatest kindness an individual can perform. In doing so, space is created for the individual to love others, to value and respect their experiences, and strengthen the relationships that connect us. There is room to connect the physical to the spiritual, which is the essence of the most fundamental principles of Judaism.
