Tisha b’Av

Tisha b’Av, in Judaism, a traditional day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples that is also associated with other disastrous events that befell the Jews. It is often called the saddest day in the Jewish year. The holiday’s name is based on its date according to the Hebrew calendar, the 9th of Av, which falls in July or August on the Gregorian calendar. If Tisha b’Av falls on the Sabbath, the holiday is postponed one day. Tisha b’Av marks the end of a period of traditional mourning in Judaism called the Three Weeks, an observance that begins on the 17th of Tammuz.

Disastrous events commemorated

According to the Talmud, Tisha b’Av was the day of numerous calamitous or painful events in the history of Judaism and Jews. In addition to being considered the day that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed (587/586 bce and 70 ce, respectively), Tisha b’Av is said to be the day of the decree in Numbers 14 that the Jews would wander 40 years in the wilderness. It is also said to mark the fall of Bethar in 135 ce, ending the Second Jewish Revolt (often called the Bar Kokhba Revolt) against Rome. Furthermore, it is considered the day in 136 that Hadrian established a Roman temple in Jerusalem (renamed Aelia Capitolina) on the site of the former Jewish temple—a place that Jews were no longer permitted to visit.

Later events in the Jewish Diaspora that took place on or about Tisha b’Av have been included as part of the memory of sorrows observed on this day. The decree of 1290 expelling Jews from England, dated July 18, coincided with Tisha b’Av that year. During the Spanish Inquisition, the deadline in 1492 for Jews to convert to Christianity or leave Spain was set for July 31, which was then the 7th and (after sunset) 8th of Av, the day prior to Tisha b’Av.

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Some Jewish writers and rabbis have incorporated historical events tied to the Holocaust into Tisha b’Av’s list of tragedies. In 1914 Tisha b’Av fell on August 1—the day that Germany declared war on Russia, transforming the crisis of the archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination into a war of alliances later known as World War I. Germany was then blamed for the war, and Germans’ resentment of the reparations imposed on them by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) played a role in the rise of Adolf Hitler and the launching of World War II. In 1942 Tisha b’Av coincided with mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Nazi forced-labor camp and extermination camp Treblinka, which began on July 23.

Despite the litany of catastrophes associated with this day of mourning, there is a silver lining, according to Rabbinic Jewish thought. The Talmud and Midrash note that the messiah, the expected king of the Davidic line and the restorer of the Jewish nation, was born on Tisha b’Av. Rather than being interpreted as referring to a literal birth, the notion of the messiah’s birth on this date is typically taken to mean that the destruction of the Temple was a prerequisite for the coming of the messiah.

Observances

The three weeks prior to Tisha b’Av—known as Beyn ha-Metzarim (“Between the Straits”)—are a time of mourning during which there are certain restrictions, such as refraining from holding weddings and cutting hair. For the first nine days of the month of Av, further restrictions are observed, including abstaining from eating meat or drinking wine, buying or washing clothes, most bathing, and listening to music. The Sabbath that precedes Tisha b’Av is called Shabbat Chazon (“Sabbath of Vision,” sometimes called Black Sabbath), in reference to Isaiah’s prophetic vision of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem.

On Tisha b’Av, from sunset to sunset, observant Jews (excluding most Reform Jews) maintain a 24-hour fast, abstaining from food and drink. Traditions also stipulate avoiding washing one’s body, applying ointments, wearing leather, and engaging in sexual relations. The liturgy of the day, performed by candlelight in a gloomy atmosphere, includes chanting or reading the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Megillat Echa) and the recital of dirges (qinot). Certain sorrowful passages from other books of the Hebrew Bible are also read, such as the accounts of Job and Jeremiah. In the synagogue, which typically has an amicable atmosphere, congregants do not greet one another. Many Jews visit cemeteries on this holiday of mourning.

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Jews of the Reform movement, which began in the 19th century, have typically not observed this day of mourning. Compared with practitioners in other branches of Judaism, they are less focused on the ideals of returning to Israel and rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. Instead, they tend to embrace life in the Diaspora, view the destruction of the Temple as leading to the evolution of Judaism away from sacrificial rituals, and emphasize life in the present and ethical concerns over the past and traditional practices. Moreover, Reform Jews reject the messianic beliefs that other branches of Judaism associate with the holiday. However, in some Reform and Reconstructionist congregations, Tisha b’Av has become a day of wide-ranging reflection on tragedies, often focusing less on Jewish history and more on modern matters of widespread concern, such as social justice and environmentalism.