Ninth of Av/July 24

[Christina]

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 TempleThe fast commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Those two events occurred about 656 years apart, but on the same dateIn 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; Seventeenth of Tammuz, when the first breach was made in the wall; 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 calamitiesAccording to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6), five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting: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) 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. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, scattering the people of Judea and commencing a two thousand year Jewish exile. Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome failed in 135 CE, Bar Kokhba was killed, and the city of Betar was destroyed. 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 AvA 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 Sabbatai Zevi, the false Jewish messiah, was born on this day in 1626. This was a reason why many Jews believed him to be the messiah, until his conversion to Islam. 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 went into effect on July 31, 1492, the 7th of Av 5252, 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 Gulf War began on August 2, 1990 - the 11th of Av - with the Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. It ended on Purim. Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria began on 15 August 2005, the 10th of Av. The Second Lebanon War began on July 12, 2006, the 16th of Tammuz, and continued until 14 August 2006, the 20th of Av.

 

[KarenCharin0]

Interesting it's good to know these days and the meaning behind them.