Tisha B'Av

The saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av) commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, along with other catastrophes in Jewish history. A day of fasting, mourning, and communal lament, it recognizes exile, suffering, and unredeemed history while maintaining hope for ultimate restoration.

Historical Tragedies

Both Temples Destroyed

First Temple (586 BCE):

• Solomon’s Temple burned by Babylonians
• Nebuchadnezzar’s forces
• Jerusalem destroyed
• Judah exiled to Babylon
• Av 9 (traditional date)

Second Temple (70 CE):

• Destroyed by Romans under Titus
• End of Great Jewish Revolt
• Jerusalem razed
• Av 9 or 10 (sources vary; observed on 9th)

Remarkable “Coincidence”:

• Same date, 656 years apart
• Divine message seen in timing
• Pattern of judgment

Other Tragedies on Tisha B’Av

Traditionally Occurred on Av 9:

1. Spies’ Report (Numbers 13-14):

   • Ten spies bring evil report of Promised Land
   • People weep and refuse to enter
   • God decrees 40 years wandering
   • Generation dies in wilderness

2. Betar Fell (135 CE):

   • Bar Kokhba revolt crushed
   • Last stronghold destroyed
   • Hundreds of thousands killed
   • Rabbi Akiva martyred

3. Jerusalem Plowed (136 CE):

   • Turnus Rufus plowed Temple Mount
   • Symbol of utter desolation
   • Pagan temple built on site

4. First Crusade (1096):

   • Massacres in Rhineland
   • Communities destroyed
   • Thousands killed

5. Expulsion from England (1290):

   • All Jews expelled
   • Property confiscated

6. Spanish Expulsion (1492):

   • Edict of expulsion signed
   • Deadline: Av 9
   • End of Golden Age

7. WWI Began (1914):

   • Led to WWII and Holocaust
   • Millions of Jewish deaths

8. Warsaw Ghetto Liquidation (1942):

   • Mass deportations to Treblinka
   • Holocaust intensification

Pattern:

• Av 9 as day of catastrophe
• Collective memory of suffering
• Not all dates historically verified
• Tradition associates tragedies with this date

The Fast

Observance

Like Yom Kippur:

• 25 hours (sunset to nightfall)
• No food or water
• Five prohibitions:
  1. Eating/drinking
  2. Bathing/washing
  3. Anointing with oils
  4. Leather shoes
  5. Marital relations

Additional Customs:

• Sit on floor or low stools (until midday)
• No greetings (except essential)
• Avoid frivolous conversation
• Some don’t sit on chairs until afternoon

Exemptions:

• Ill, pregnant, nursing
• Children
• Medical necessity

Mourning Customs

Like Mourner for Dead:

• No meat or wine (meal before fast)
• Sit low
• Minimal comfort
• Ashes on head (some)
• Torn garment (some)

Work:

• Permitted but discouraged
• Many take day off
• Focus on mourning

Liturgy and Reading

Eicha (Lamentations)

Book Read at Night:

• Jeremiah’s lament over Jerusalem’s destruction
• Five chapters of poetry
• Acrostic structure
• Deep sorrow and mourning

Haunting Opening: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations!” (Lam. 1:1)

Tone:

• Despair and grief
• Questioning God
• Accepting responsibility
• Glimmer of hope

Special Melody:

• Mournful trope
• Cantor’s voice breaks
• Congregation weeps
• Dimly lit synagogue

Kinot (Elegies)

Morning Service:

• Dozens of poetic lamentations
• Written over centuries
• Temples’ destruction primary
• All Jewish tragedies included
• Medieval persecutions
• Spanish expulsion
• Holocaust

Themes:

• Loss and grief
• Exile and suffering
• Martyrdom
• Longing for redemption

Format:

• Acrostic poems
• Alphabetical structures
• Beautiful but sorrowful

Torah Readings

Morning:

• Deuteronomy 4:25-40: Warning of exile
• Jeremiah 8:13-9:23: Judgment and mourning

Afternoon:

• Exodus 32:11-14; 34:1-10: Moses intercedes, God’s mercy
• Isaiah 55:6-56:8: Comfort and future hope
• Haftarah introduces comfort theme

Transition:

• By afternoon, mourning eases slightly
• Looking toward rebuilding
• Hope emerges

Theological Themes

Sin and Consequence

Why Temples Destroyed?:

• Talmud: Second Temple fell due to “baseless hatred”
• Internal division
• Moral failure
• Not just external enemies

Collective Responsibility:

• National sins bring national punishment
• Need for repentance
• Avoiding same errors

Exile and Redemption

Galut (Exile):

• Physical exile from land
• Spiritual distance from God
• Longing for return
• Incomplete redemption

Messianic Hope:

• Tradition: Messiah born on Tisha B’Av
• Destruction contains seeds of redemption
• Deepest darkness before dawn
• Ultimate restoration promised

Temple’s Centrality

What Was Lost:

• Divine presence (Shekhinah)
• Sacrificial worship
• National spiritual center
• Prophetic revelation

Modern Question:

• Do we want Temple rebuilt?
• Animal sacrifice today?
• Symbolic vs. literal longing
• Varied Jewish views

Mourning Unfinished

Still in Exile:

• Even with State of Israel
• Temple not rebuilt
• Messiah not come
• World unredeemed

Tisha B’Av Relevance:

• Not just historical
• Present reality
• Ongoing mourning
• Waiting for completion

Three Weeks of Mourning

Leading Up to Tisha B’Av:

• 17 Tammuz: Minor fast (walls breached)
• Three Weeks: Between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av
• Nine Days (1-9 Av): Intensified mourning
• Week of Tisha B’Av: Strictest

Restrictions Increase:

• Three Weeks: No weddings, haircuts, music
• Nine Days: Add no meat/wine, new clothes, bathing for pleasure
• Week of: Add no laundry, ironing
• Progressive mourning

Observance Today

Synagogue

Evening:

• Ark curtain removed or black covering
• Lights dimmed
• Candles lit
• Congregation on floor
• Eicha chanted
• Kinot begin

Morning:

• No tallit or tefillin (first time only)
• Kinot continue (hours)
• Torah reading
• Tallit and tefillin worn for afternoon

Customs Vary

Orthodox:

• Strict observance
• All day in synagogue
• Complete fast
• All mourning customs

Conservative:

• Services and fast
• May abbreviate kinot
• Some modern kinot added (Holocaust)

Reform:

• Services often evening only
• Some don’t fast
• Emphasis on memory and meaning

Modern Additions

Holocaust Remembrance:

• Kinot about Shoah
• Poems from camps
• Six million mourned
• Connecting ancient and modern tragedy

Israel’s Tragedies:

• Fallen soldiers
• Terror victims
• Modern Jewish suffering

Tisha B’Av in Israel

National Character:

• Restaurants closed
• Radio plays somber music
• Public mourning
• Educational programs

Western Wall:

• Thousands gather
• Reading Eicha
• Prayers and tears
• Proximity to Temple site

Ironies:

• Sovereign state exists
• Jerusalem reunited
• Yet Temple unmade
• Mourning what?

After Midday

Mood Shifts:

• Stand from floor
• Put on tallit/tefillin
• Slightly less severe
• Beginning of comfort

Transition:

• From destruction to rebuilding
• From mourning to hope
• From weeping to consolation

Shabbat Nachamu

Sabbath After Tisha B’Av:

• “Sabbath of Comfort”
• Isaiah 40: “Comfort, comfort my people”
• Seven weeks of consolation readings
• Leading to Rosh Hashanah

Arc:

• Destruction → Comfort → New Year
• Narrative of Jewish year
• Pattern of exile and return

The Message of Tisha B’Av

Tisha B’Av forces honesty: The world is not redeemed. Evil persists. Suffering continues. While most holidays celebrate victories, Tisha B’Av acknowledges defeats and disasters.

This isn’t masochism but realism. The Jewish people refuse to forget the tragedies or pretend all is well. Memory is obligation. “Remember the days of old” (Deut. 32:7).

But Tisha B’Av isn’t despair. The tradition that Messiah is born on Tisha B’Av is profound: redemption emerges from destruction’s deepest point. When all seems lost, hope is born. The darkest hour precedes the dawn.

The instruction to stop Torah study seems strange—Torah usually brings comfort. But Tisha B’Av says: Sometimes you must sit in the ashes. Don’t rush to consolation. Feel the loss. Mourn what’s broken.

Yet even Eicha (Lamentations) contains “The Lord’s mercies never cease… They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23). Even in deepest sorrow, thread of hope.

And the kinot end. The tallit is donned. The comfort begins. Mourning has its time, but not forever. As Psalm 30:5 says: “Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Tisha B’Av teaches: Remember the catastrophes, but don’t be defined by them. Mourn the losses, but work for restoration. Sit in ashes, then stand up and rebuild.

Next year in Jerusalem isn’t escape from pain but commitment to hope. The Temple will be rebuilt—literally or figuratively, physically or spiritually. Redemption will come.

Until then, we mourn. We remember. We fast. We read Eicha. We sit on the floor.

And we wait for the day when “The Lord will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8) and Tisha B’Av transforms from fast to feast.