Tisha B’Av

“The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem” by Francesco Hayez (1867), Gallerie dell’Accademia (Accession No. 757), Venice, Italy, Author Didier Descouens, (PD)

“Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us;
Look, and behold our reproach!” (Lam. 5: 1).

Tisha B’Av is an annual fast day in the Jewish calendar which commemorates the destruction of the First Temple and other tragedies which have befallen the Jewish people on or near the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av [1A].

The list of these tragedies is long.  According to the Mishnah (the first major collection of Jewish oral tradition), the five which justify fasting are these [1B]:

1. Israelite fearful refusal to enter the Promised Land (Deut. 1: 26).  The Numbers Rabbah (a collection of rabbinical sermons on the Book of Numbers) quotes God as saying, “You cried before me pointlessly, I will fix for you [this day as a day of] crying for the generations.”
2. Destruction of the First Temple by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and subsequent Babylonian Captivity [2].  According to the Bible, the destruction of Solomon’s Temple began on the 7th day of Av (2 Kings 25:8), and continued until the 10th day (Jer. 52:12).  According to the  Talmud, destruction actually began on the 9th of Av.  The Temple continued to burn through the 10th.
3. Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD during the First Jewish Revolt, and subsequent exile of the Jews from the Holy Land.
4. Plowing up of the Temple grounds by Roman Commander Terentius Rufus, after the city of Jerusalem was sacked.  According to the Jewish historian Josephus, this was done in the hope that buried treasure might be found there [3].
5. Killing of 580,000 Jews by the Romans on August 4, 135 AD, during Bar Kokhba rebellion.  Those who survived were sold into slavery.  The scrolls of the Temple were later ceremonially burned at the pagan complex for the god Jupiter built on the Temple Mount [4].

Later calamities which have occurred on or near the 9th of Av include the following:

1. Start of the First Crusade on August, 15 1096 (Av 24, AM 4856), with 10,000 Jews killed during the first month.
2. Expulsion of the Jews from England on July, 18, 1290 (Av 9, AM 5050) [5].
3. Expulsion of the Jews from France on July 22, 1306 (Av 10, AM 5066) [6].
4. Expulsion of the Jews from Spain on July 31, 1492 (Av 7, AM 5252) [7].
5. German entry into WWI on August 1-2, 1914 (Av 9–10, AM 5674), and subsequent upheaval to the Jews of Europe.
6. Approval by the Nazi Party on August 2, 1941 (Av 9, AM 5701) for the “Final Solution” and the Holocaust in which nearly 1/3 of the world’s Jews were killed [8][9].  Many religious Jews still use Tisha B’Av to commemorate the Holocaust rather than Yom HaShoah.
7. Start of the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Nazi death camp at Treblinka on July 23, 1942 (Av 9, AM 5702).

Despite these trials, God will never abandon His chosen people.

“…the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.” (Deut. 30: 3).

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[1]  Wikipedia,  “Tisha B’Av”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B%27Av.

[2]  Wikipedia, “Babylonian Captivity”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity.

[3]  Wikipedia, “Quintus Tineius Rufus”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Tineius_Rufus_(consul_127).

[4]  Wikipedia, “Bar Kokhba revolt”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt.

[5]  British Library, “Expulsion of Jews from England 1290”, https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item103483.html

[6]  JSTOR, “The Expulsion of the Jews from France (1306)” by Simon Schwarzfuchs, 1967, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1453511.

[7]  Jewish Virtual Library, “Modern Jewish History:  The Spanish Expulsion (1492)”, Source “Jewish Literacy” by Joseph Telushkin, 1991, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-spanish-expulsion-1492.

[8]  Imperial War Museum (IWM), “What Was the Holocaust?”, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-holocaust.

[9]  Wikipedia, “Holocaust”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust.

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