Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av
Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Francesco Hayez
Official name	Hebrew: תשעה באב English: Ninth of Av
Observed by	Jews in Judaism
Type	Jewish
Significance	Mourning for the destruction of the First & Second Temples in Jerusalem
Observances	Fasting, prayer
Date	9th day of Av (if a Sabbath, then the 10th of Av)
2024 date
Related to	The fasts of the Tenth of Tevet and the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the Three Weeks & the Nine Days

Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: תשעה באב or ט׳ באב), or the Ninth of Av, is an annual fast day in Judaism that falls in July or August. Its name denotes the ninth day (Tish'a) of the Jewish month of Av. The day has been called the "saddest day in Jewish history". When the ninth of Av falls on the Sabbath, the observance is pushed off until Sunday the tenth (although that day is still referred to as Tisha B'Av).

History

Destruction of the Temple

The fast commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Those two events occurred about 656 years apart, but on the same date.

In connection with the fall of Jerusalem, three other fast-days were established at the same time as the Ninth Day of Av: these were the Tenth of Tevet, when the siege began; the Seventeenth of Tammuz, when the first breach was made in the wall; and the Third of Tishrei, known as the Fast of Gedaliah, the day when Gedaliah was assassinated (II Kings 25:25; Jeremiah 41:2). From Zechariah 7:5, 8:19 it appears that after the building of the Second Temple the custom of keeping these fast-days was temporarily discontinued. Since the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Second Temple by the Romans, the four fast-days have again been observed.

The five calamities

According to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6), five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting:

1. The twelve scouts sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan returned from their mission. Two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, brought a positive report, but the others spoke disparagingly about the land which caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair of ever entering the "Promised Land". For this, they were punished by God that their generation would not enter the land and when their descendants would do so under Joshua’s leadership, they would have to wage wars in order to possess it. Because of the Israelites' lack of faith, God decreed that for all generations this date would become one of crying and misfortune for their descendants, the Jewish people. (See Numbers Ch. 13–14)
2. The First Temple built by King Solomon and the Kingdom of Judah were destroyed by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and the Judeans were sent into the Babylonian exile.
3. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, scattering the people of Judea and commencing a two thousand year Jewish exile.
4. Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome failed in 135 CE, Bar Kokhba was killed, and the city of Betar was destroyed.
5. Following the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the razing of Jerusalem occurred the next year.

According to the Talmud in tractate Taanit, the destruction of the Second Temple began on the ninth and was finally consumed by the flames the next day on the Tenth of Av.

Later calamities on the ninth of Av

A large number of calamities also occurred on the ninth of Av:

• In 1290, the signature of the edict by King Edward I expelling the Jews from England
• In the First World War, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914, Tisha B'av.
• On July 31, 1941 coinciding with Tisha B'Av, under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to make all the necessary preparations for the Final Solution.
• The first transports reached Treblinka and the extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began on July 23, 1942 [1] .

Some calamities that occurred shortly before or after the ninth of Av:

• The Alhambra decree expelling the Jews from Spain, came into effect on 1492-07-31, the 7th of Av 5252, just two days before Tisha B'av.
• In 1955 El Al Flight 402 was shot down over Bulgarian airspace on the 8th of Av.
• The AMIA Bombing (Asociación Mutua Israelita Argentina) by terrorists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 and wounded more than 120, was on July 18, 1994, the 10th of Av.
• The Second Lebanon War, July 12, 2006 14 August 2006 - Started on the 17th of Tamuz and went on past the 9th of Av.
• The Gulf War began on August 2, 1990 - the 11th of Av - with the Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. The Gulf War ended on Purim.
• Shabsi Tzvi, the false jewish messiah, was born on this day. this was a reason why many jews mistakenly believed he was the messiah, until his conversion to Islam.

Customs

Restrictions

Tisha B'Av is a fast day similar to Yom Kippur. While most other fasts on the Jewish calendar only last from dawn to nightfall, the Tisha B'Av fast lasts about 25 hours, beginning at sunset on the eve of Tisha B'Av and ending at nightfall the next day. Tisha B'Av also shares four additional prohibitions with Yom Kippur that do not apply on other fast days.

The five main prohibitions on Tisha B'Av are:

1. No eating or drinking
2. No washing or bathing
3. No application of creams or oils
4. No leather shoes
5. No sexual relations or displays of physical affection

Torah study is also forbidden (as it is considered an enjoyable activity), except for sad texts such as the Book of Lamentations, the Book of Job, portions of Jeremiah and chapters of the Talmud that discuss the laws of mourning.

From sunset until noon it is customary to sit on low stools or on the floor, as is done during shiva . If possible, work is avoided during this period. Electric lighting may be turned off or dimmed, and kinot recited by candle-light. Some sleep on the floor or modify their normal sleeping routine, by sleeping without a pillow, for instance. People refrain from greeting each other or sending gifts on this day. Old prayerbooks and Torahs are often buried on this day.

These restrictions are waived in the case of health issues. For example, those who are ill may eat and drink, in contrast to Yom Kippur, when eating and drinking is allowed only in cases of life-threatening need. (Nevertheless, Tisha B'Av is still more stringent than other fast days, in that only seriously ill people may eat - in practice, since many cases differ consultation with a rabbi is often necessary.) Washing to the knuckles for ritual purposes is permitted.

Although the fast ends at nightfall, some people refrain from eating meat and drinking wine until noon of the following day. According to tradition, the Temple burned all night and most of the day of the tenth of Av (the time the burning was complete is subject to two opinions in the Talmud, this custom is in reverence of that opinion).

The laws of Tisha B'Av are recorded in the Shulkhan Arukh (the "Code of Jewish Law") Orach Chayim 552-557.

The days leading up to Tisha B'Av are known as The Nine Days. Many Orthodox Jews refrain from eating meat during this period, and some refrain from pleasurable activities such as going to music concerts or swimming. In the three weeks before Tisha B'Av, some Jews do not cut their hair or shave. Weddings are not held during this period.

Services

The scroll of Eicha (Lamentations) is read in synagogue during the evening services. In addition, most of the morning is spent reading kinnot ("dirges"), most bewailing the loss of the Temples and the subsequent persecutions, but many others referring to post-exile disasters. These later kinnot were composed by various poets (often prominent Rabbis) who had either suffered in the events mentioned or relate received reports. Important kinnot were composed by Elazar ha-Kalir and Rabbi Judah ha-Levi. After the Holocaust, kinnot were composed by the German-born Rabbi Shimon Schwab (in 1959, at the request of Rabbi Joseph Breuer) and by Rabbi Solomon Halberstam, leader of the Bobov Hasidim (in 1984).

In many Sephardic congregations the Book of Job is read on the morning of Tisha B'Av.

In Jerusalem, reciting Eicha at the Western Wall has become a widespread custom since the Six-Day War. There is no obligation to recite Eicha in a synagogue. On the eve of Tisha B'Av, many Jerusalem residents gather in parks and sites overlooking the Old City, such as the Sherover Promenade (Tayelet), and read Eicha and kinot in the dark, by the light of candles or flashlights. Since the assassination of Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, a group meets at his grave on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem to recite Eicha.

History of the observance

In the long period which is reflected in Talmudic literature the observance of the Ninth Day of Av assumed a character of constantly growing sadness and asceticism. By the end of the second century or at the beginning of the third, the celebration of the day had lost much of its gloom. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi was in favor of abolishing it altogether or, according to another version, of lessening its severity when the fast has been postponed from Saturday to Sunday (Talmud, Tractate Megillah 5b).

The growing strictness in the observance of mourning customs in connection with the Ninth Day of Av became pronounced in post-Talmudic times, and particularly in the darkest period of Jewish history, from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth.

Maimonides (twelfth century), in his Mishneh Torah, says that the restrictions as to the eating of meat and the drinking of wine refer only to the last meal before fasting on the Eighth Day of Av, if taken after noon, but before noon anything may be eaten (Hilchoth Ta'anith 5:8). Rabbi Moses of Coucy (thirteenth century) wrote that it is the universal custom to refrain from meat and wine during the whole day preceding the Ninth of Av (Sefer Mitzvoth ha-Gadol, Venice ed., Laws of Tishah B'Av, 249b). Rabbi Joseph Caro (sixteenth century) says some are accustomed to abstain from meat and wine from the beginning of the week in which the Ninth Day of Av falls; and still others abstain throughout the three weeks from the Seventeenth of Tammuz (Shulkhan Arukh, Orach Chayim 551).

A gradual extension of prohibitions can be traced in the abstention from marrying at this season and in other signs of mourning. So Rabbi Moses of Coucy says that some do not use the tefillin ("phylacteries") on the Ninth Day of Av, a custom which later was universally observed (it is now postponed until the afternoon). In this manner all customs originally designated as marks of unusual piety finally became the rule for all.

In light of Israel's establishment

Orthodox Jewish view

Orthodox Jews believe that until the arrival of the Jewish Messiah, this day will continue to be observed as a fast; when the Messiah comes, it will become a great celebration. This notion is asserted on the basis of a passage in the Book of Zechariah (8:19) that foretells of the transformation of four fast days into joyous holidays.

According to the Orthodox-Mizrachi establishment, combat soldiers are absolved of fasting on Tisha B'Av on the basis that it can endanger their lives. The latest of such decrees were issued during the Second Lebanon War by leading Rabbinical authorities Israel's Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger in tangent with the IDF's chief rabbi, Brigadier General Yisrael Weiss.

Conservative and Masorti view

The law committee of the Masorti Movement (Conservative Judaism in the State of Israel) issued a responsum on the question "In our time do we still have to fast for the whole of Tish'a b'Av, seeing that our sovereign independence has been regained? May we reduce the outward signs of mourning and permit eating after the Minchah Service?" Two views were given:

• Rabbi Theodore Friedman wrote that: "There is already an historical precedent in Megillat Ta'anit which stipulated days on which we may not fast because of salvation wrought for Israel. In our time we have been vouchsafed a great salvation in the establishment of the State... It therefore seems to us that this great historical turning point in Israel's history should be celebrated by not completing the fast on 9th Av, but concluding it after the midday Minchah."
• Rabbi David Golinkin wrote, concluding "It is forbidden to fast only half the day on Tish'a b'Av for several reasons:
  • we have demonstrated that during the period of the Second Temple they did fast on Tish'a b'Av...
  • From the halakhic point of view this is not possible. Either we must fast on all four of the fasts [and Tisha b'Av] or on Tish'a b'Av alone...
  • From the ideological point of view, we cannot yet say that we have reached the period of "peace". We should revert to the custom of the Ge'onim ... and fast the whole day on Tish'a b'Av and declare the other fast days to be voluntary and not compulsory."

Finally, Ismar Schorsch, former chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, wrote: "If Tisha b'Av commemorated only the destruction of the two Temples in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., its capacity to appeal to the modern Jew would have vanished. Though it is true that both calamities threatened the very survival of the Jewish people, Conservative Jews no longer pray for the restoration of the sacrificial cult in Jerusalem. The verbal and musical worship of the synagogue surely represents a more edifying, humane and universal form of prayer."

Religious Zionist view

Since the re-establishment of a Jewish state and the reunification of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War, some religious Zionist leaders have contemplated whether Tisha B'Av is still relevant. Most rabbis, however, believe that it should be observed. Since Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza, initiated by former prime minister Ariel Sharon, right wing segments of the Religious Zionist community have begun to recite kinot to commemorate the expulsion of Jewish settlers from Gush Katif and northern Samaria on the day after Tisha B'Av, in 2005.

Secular view

Berl Katznelson a leader of the Labor Zionist movement was critical of his party's youth movement for celebrating with campfires on Tisha B'Av in 1936. He asserted that it was important that from even within a secular mindset, that it is prudent to attempt to establish a manner in which to recontextualize the traditional observances and not to simply ignore them.

Other traditions

Classical Jewish sources maintain that the Jewish Messiah will be born on Tisha B'Av, though many explain this idea metaphorically, as the hope for the Jewish Messiah was born on Tisha B'Av with the destruction of the Temple.

See also

• Ta'anit
• Jewish holiday
• Bereavement in Judaism

External links

• Chabad.org Calendar, go to 9th of Av
• Av, the month of tragedies
• Three Weeks and Tisha B'Av
• The Historical Meaning of Tish'a B'av (9 Av), Rabbi Joshua Yuter