(5772) July 29, 2012 (fast deferred)

Rosh Chodesh Av – the first day of the Hebrew month of Av – begins the most intense mourning period of The Three Weeks. This nine-day mourning period culminates in the fast of Tisha B’Av.

Tisha B'Avis a Rabbinic fast day that occurs on 9 Av (in July or August). This day is a day of fasting and commemorating the multiple tragedies that have occurred on this day, most notably the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Tisha B'Av primarily commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on the ninth of Av. Tisha B'Av is the culmination of a three week period of increasing mourning, beginning with the fast of the 17th of Tammuz, which commemorates the first breach in the walls of Jerusalem, before the First Temple was destroyed.

During this three week period, weddings and other parties are not permitted, and people refrain from cutting their hair. From the first to the ninth of Av, it is customary to refrain from eating meat or drinking wine (except on Shabbat) and from wearing new clothing. The restrictions on Tisha B'Av include refraining from eating and drinking (even water); washing, bathing, shaving or wearing cosmetics; wearing leather shoes; engaging in sexual relations; and studying Torah. Work in the ordinary sense of the word is also restricted. Many of the traditional mourning practices are observed: people refrain from smiles, laughter and idle conversation, and sit on low stools. In synagogue, the book of Lamentations is read and mourning prayers are recited. The ark (cabinet where the Torah is kept) is draped in black.

Five tragedies (Taanit 26b) that have befallen the Jewish people on this date are:
Decree that the Hebrews would not enter Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel)
Destruction of the first Holy Temple
Destruction of the Second Holy Temple
Betar was captured
Jerusalem was razed

It was decreed that the Children of Israel would not enter Eretz Yisrael.
Numbers 14:26-35:^[1] (26) The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, (27) "How much longer will this evil congregation who are causing to complain against Me [exist]? The complaints of the children of Israel which they caused them to complain against Me, I have heard. (28) Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'if not as you have spoken in My ears, so will I do to you. (29) In this desert, your corpses shall fall; your entire number, all those from the age of twenty and up, who were counted, because you complained against Me. (30) You shall [not] come into the Land concerning which I raised My hand that you would settle in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. (31) As for your infants, of whom you said that they will be as spoils, I will bring them [there], and they will come to know the Land which You despised. (32) But as for you, your corpses shall fall in this desert. (33) Your children shall wander in the desert for forty years and bear your defection until the last of your corpses has fallen in the desert. (34) According to the number of days which you toured the Land forty days, a day for each year, you will [thus] bear your iniquities for forty years; thus you will come to know My alienation. (35) I, the Lord, have spoken if I will not do this to the entire evil congregation who have assembled against me; in this desert they will end, and there they will die. (36) As for the men whom Moses had sent to scout the Land, who returned and caused the entire congregation to complain against him by spreading [a slanderous] report about the Land"

The First Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was destroyed.
Jeremiah 39:1-2:^[1] (1) In the ninth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and besieged it. (2) In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month on the ninth of the month, a breach was made in the city.

II Chronicles 36:17-20:^[1] (17) And He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, and he slew their young men by the sword in their Temple, and he had pity neither on youth nor virgin, elder nor ancient one; He delivered all into his hand. (18) And all the vessels of the House of God, both large and small, and the treasuries of the House of the Lord, and the treasuries of the king and his officers; he brought everything to Babylon. (19) And they burned the House of God, and they demolished the wall of Jerusalem, and all its palaces they burned with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. (20) And he exiled the survivors from the sword to Babylon, and they became vassals to him and to his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.

The Second Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was destroyed.
“NOW as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done,) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; … But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of; … These lamps were in number seven, and represented the dignity of the number seven among the Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews.” (Flavius Josephus – The War of the Jews, Book VII)^[2]

The city of Betar was captured.
“It was the custom when a boy was born to plant a cedar tree and when a girl was born to plant a pine tree, and when they married, the tree was cut down and a canopy made of the branches. One day the daughter of the Emperor was passing when the shaft of her litter broke, so they lopped some branches off a cedar tree and brought it to her. The Jews thereupon fell upon them and beat them. They reported to the Emperor that the Jews were rebelling, and he marched against them. He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel. R. Zera said in the name of R. Abbahu who quoted R. Johanan: These are the eighty [thousand] battle trumpets which assembled in the city of Bethar when it was taken and men, women and children were slain in it until their blood ran into the great sea.” (Babylonian Talmud – Gittin 57a)^[3]

Jerusalem was razed to the ground.
“Now Simon would not tell them, but bid them call for their captain; and when they ran to call him, Terentius Rufus who was left to command the army there, came to Simon, and learned of him the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Caesar know that he was taken. This Tereutius Rufus … is the same person whom the Talmudists call Turnus Rufus; of whom they relate, that ‘he ploughed up Sion as a field, and made Jerusalem become as heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high Idaces of a forest;’” (Flavius Josephus – The War of the Jews, Book VII)^[2]

“The last of the five events of Tisha b'Av can be interpreted along the same lines. The final razing of Jerusalem was designed to quash any hopes among the Jews for a restoration of their sovereignty, or even of their ability to dwell in the city. Once again, on the very date which marked the Jewish people's original spurning of Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael was showing its own scorn for the Jewish people.” (Babylonian Talmud – Ta’anit 29a)^[4]

Other tragedies have also occurred on Tisha B’Av in the modern era.^[5]
In 1095 the First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II resulting in 10,000 Jews killed in first month of Crusade and nearly the total obliteration of many communities in Rhineland and France.

In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England, their sacred texts and writings were destroyed and their property was confiscated.

The Spanish Inquisition culminated with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

World War I broke out on the eve of Tisha B’Av in 1914. German resentment from this war set the stage for the Shoah.

On Tisha B’Av eve 1942, the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began.

The deadly bombing of the building of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina killed 86 people and wounded some 300 others in 1994.

Additional Information: Tish B'Av :: The Ninth of Av :: Tish B'Av :: Tishah BAv

WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
By Rachel-Esther bat-Avraham

Don't you just hate it when you are traveling along the highway just to come upon the one and only nail in the road and ending up with a flat tire? Don't you just hate it when you seem to be the only person in the room who has managed to spill their coffee in their lap? When bad things happen to us individually we all get upset at ourselves and possible at others. But what happens when bad things happen to an entire people?

The entire people to which I refer are the Jews. It is no secret that throughout the lives of the Jewish people-beginning with Abraham-many bad things have happened. There has been slavery, dispersion to foreign lands, genocide, destruction of Holy Writings, lose of the Temple (twice!), foreign dictators on the throne of Israel, and - most recently - the Intifada. Through it all there have been those Jews who have given in and forgot their Jewish brothers and sisters, G-d, and Torah. There have also been many Jews who have not given in and have helped their Jewish brothers and sisters. These people did not forget G-d or Torah. These people have also remembered the bad things that have happened to the Jews and they mourn.

Tish B'Av (the 9th of Av) is the day that we Jews remember all the bad things that have happened to us. This full day fast is a remembrance of the things lost to us through our own actions and through the actions of others. This day is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar due to all the tragedies that have happened on this particular day to the Jewish people.

(1312 BCE) The sin of the spies caused Hashem to decree that the Children of Israel who left Egypt would not be permitted to enter the land of Israel
(421 BCE) The first Temple was destroyed
(70 CE) The second Temple was destroyed-over 2.5 million killed
(132 CE) Betar, the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt fell-over 100,000 killed
(133 CE) One year after the fall of Betar, the Temple area was plowed and the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina was built
(1095 CE) First Crusade declared by Pope Urban II-10,000 killed in the first month
(1290 CE) Expulsion of Jews from England
(1492 CE) King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree, setting Tisha B'Av as the final date by which not a single Jew would be allowed to walk on Spanish soil
(1914 CE) World War I – which began the downward slide to the Holocaust – began on Tisha B’av
(1942 CE) Deportation of Jews from Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka Concentration Camp began
(1989 CE) Iraq walks out on talks with Kuwait
(1994 CE) Bombing of the JCC in Buenos Aires, Argentina-86 killed

During our time of mourning we must not forget that we are G-d's Chosen People and G-d has blessed us with His Torah. May you all have an easy fast.

© Rachel-Esther bat-Avraham 2003-2012

^[1]"The Complete Jewish Bible." chabad.org Chabad, n.d.
^[2]Whiston, William (trans.) Flavius Josephus' War of the Jews Sacred Texts, 1737.
^[3]"Gittin 57a." come-and-hear.com Come and Hear, n.d.
^[4]"Taanit 29a." shemayisrael.co.il Shema Yisrael Torah Network, n.d.
^[5]Becher, Mordechai. History of Events on Tish B'Av Ohr Somayach, n.d.

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