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Tisha B'av

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Tisha B'Av
Official name Hebrew: תשעה באב
Also called
Observed by Judaism and Jews
Type Religious
Significance Mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Begins
Ends
Date 9th day of Av
Gregorian Date (2006) August 3
Celebrations
Observances Fasting, prayer
Related to

Tisha B'Av or Tish'ah b'Av (Hebrew: תשעה באב, tish‘āh bə-āḇ) is a major annual fast day in Judaism. Its name denotes the ninth day (Tisha) of the Jewish month of Av, which falls in the high summer. It has been called the "saddest day in Jewish history".

Contents

Background

The destructions

The fast commemorates two of the saddest events in Jewish history -- the destruction of the First Temple (originially built by King Solomon), and the destruction of the Second Temple. Those two events occurred about 556 years apart, but both in the same month, Av, and, as tradition has it, both on the ninth day.

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 Tishri, 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.

After the Exodus

On this day in the year 1312 BCE, the generation of Jews who came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership 16 months earlier were condemned to die in the wilderness (midbar) and the entry into the Land of Israel was delayed for 40 years until the old generation died out.

The five calamities

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

  1. On this day, the Twelve spies sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan brought an "evil report" about the land that caused the Children of Israel to cry, panic and despair of ever entering the "Promised land" for which they were punished by G-d that they would not enter and that for all generations the day would become one of crying and misfortune for the descendants of the Children of Israel, the Jewish people. (Numbers ch 13-14)
  2. Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) 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 Roman Empire in 70 CE scattering the people of Judea and commnecing a two thousand year Jewish exile.
  4. The Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome failed, Bar Kokhba was killed, as was Rabbi Akiva and many other important sages of the Mishnah, and Betar was destroyed.
  5. Following the Siege of Jerusalem, the subsequent razing of Jerusalem one year later.
According to the Talmud (Tractate Taanit), the destruction of the Second Temple began on that date and was finally consumed by the flames on the next day -- the Tenth of Av.

Later calamities on 9 Av

A large number of calamities occurred on the ninth of Av: The purpose of the day is not to institute annual commemorations of historical disasters. Rather, they are commemorated on Tisha B'Av. Examples are the destruction of many Jewish communities in the Rhineland during the Crusades. The liturgy often makes mention of specific instances (see below).

Holocaust (Shoah)

Most Haredi Jews also see Tisha B'Av as a remembrance day for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews remember these on a special day instituted by the government of Israel, called Yom HaShoah. Haredi rabbinical leaders view the institution of a new permanent day of mourning or celebration in our times as a heretical thought and condemn such actions, which is why Haredi Jews do not observe Yom Yerushalayim nor the Israeli independence day either, though the reason for refraining from celebrating the latter day is more complex, since Haredi Judaism does not consider the state of Israel to have any religious significance at all.

Observances

Restrictions

As on Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av is observed as a full day fast that lasts 25 hours (sometimes longer, depending on where one is located), beginning with sunset and ending with nightfall the subsequent day. There are six main prohibitions:

  1. Not wearing leather shoes.
  2. Abstaining from all food and drink (unless this would be life-threatening)
  3. Abstaining from washing or bathing of any kind. Some authorities state that washing solely for the sake of hygiene is acceptable.
  4. Abstaining from applying creams or oils. Skin creams, deoderants and makeup are included in this prohibition.
  5. Abstaining from sexual relations, hugging, kissing and all other forms of physical affection.
  6. Abstaining from studying Torah, though reading Lamentations, Job, some sections of Jeremiah and sections of the Talmud that deal with the laws of mourning is allowed.
Although the fast ends at nightfall, eating meat and drinking wine are prohibited until noon of the following day. According to tradition, the Temple burned all night and most of the day of the tenth of Av.

During services in synagogue, and when returning home, from nightfall until mid-day one is required to sit on the floor or on low chairs as during shiv'ah (the week of mourning observed after the death of a first-degree relative). Some even have the custom of sleeping on the floor or other modification to the normal sleeping routine. People must refrain from greeting each other or sending gifts on this day. Old prayerbooks and Torahs are often buried on this day.

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

Services

The scroll of Eichah (Lamentations) is read in synagogue during the evening services. In addition, most of the morning is spent reading kinoth ("dirges"), most bewailing the loss of the Temples and the subsequent persecutions, but many others referring to post-exile disasters. These later kinnoth were composed by various poets (often prominent Rabbis) who had either suffered in the events mentioned or relate received reports. Important kinnoth were composed by Elazar ha-Kalir and Rabbi Judah ha-Levi. After the Holocaust, kinnoth 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).

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 feast 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 life, 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

According to Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism, while on the whole supporting the establishment of the State, has not seen it as a reason to abandon mourning over the destruction of the Temples and the other calamities, at least until the arrival of the Jewish Messiah, when it will be a day of celebration.

Religious Zionism's ideas

In the 20th century, with the re-establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, a small number of religious Zionists opined that the commemoration of Tisha B'Av would have to be modified, and possibly overturned, but this has been rejected by the majority.

Conservative and Masorti ideas

The law committee of the Masorti Movement (Conservative Judaism in the State of Israel) issued responsa 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 responsa were given:

Other traditions

Classical Jewish sources maintain that the Jewish Messiah will be born on Tisha B'Av.

See also

References

  1. ↑  Telushkin, J. Jewish Literacy. William Morrow & Co, 2001, p. 656
  2. ↑  Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1927-1970 - Volume III Ed. David Golinkin, The Rabbinical Assembly, Jerusalem, 1997. Responsa relating to this topic in this volume include Marriage during the Sefirah 1949; Restraint on Marriages During the Omer Days 1952; A Dvar Torah Suggested by Lab Baomer 1962; Weddings During the Three Weeks 1964; Weddings During the Three Weeks 1968.

External links

Jewish holidays
Shabbat | Rosh Chodesh | Rosh Hashanah | Fast of Gedalia | Yom Kippur | Sukkot | Simchat Torah | Hanukkah | Tenth of Tevet | Tu Bishvat | Fast of Esther & Purim | Fast of the firstborn | Pesach | Counting of the Omer | Lag Ba'omer | Shavuot | 17th of Tammuz, The three weeks & The nine days | Tisha B'Av | Tu B'Av

National holidays of Israel: Yom HaShoah | Yom Hazikaron | Yom Ha'atzmaut | Yom Yerushalayim

 

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