The story behind the day
Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av, is the Jewish day of mourning for the loss of the two Temples that stood in Jerusalem, the First and the Second, and for later disasters tradition has attached to the same date. It is a fast from sunset to nightfall, marked by the chanting of Lamentations and dirges in a darkened synagogue, and it ends three weeks of mourning that begin on the 17th of Tammuz. When the ninth falls on Shabbat, the fast is deferred to Sunday. Liberal Jews observe it less than traditional communities do.[1–7]
Origins
The Mishnah (Ta'anit 4:6) lists five disasters said to have befallen the Jewish people on the ninth of Av: the decree that the generation of the Exodus would die in the wilderness, the destruction of the First Temple by Babylon and the Second by Rome, the capture of Betar, and the plowing of Jerusalem. The tradition links the first of these to the spies' report, and a Talmudic story has God answering the people's needless weeping with a promise of real cause to weep.[1, 8–9]
What it marks
The sources do not agree on every detail of the date. The Talmud fixes the ninth as the anniversary of both destructions, and the Temple is said to have burned on into the tenth, but historians dispute that both Temples fell on this day. Later disasters were attached to it, among them the banishment of England's Jews in 1290 and of Spain's in 1492. The day has become a symbol of Jewish suffering, and some modern observers also name the Crusades and the Holocaust, though others avoid linking the Holocaust to the day.[10–12]
How it is kept
The fast runs from sunset to nightfall and is the only full-day fast besides Yom Kippur. Eating, drinking, washing, anointing, leather shoes and marital relations are forbidden. Worshippers read Lamentations in the evening, often seated on the floor, and recite dirges called kinot. The lights are dimmed and the curtain of the Ark removed. Tallit and tefillin are put on only in the afternoon. The mourning of the Three Weeks and the Nine Days that lead up to it is traditional, and its restrictions extend to midday on the tenth because the Temple burned on into that day.[2–5, 13–15]
Across traditions
Orthodox communities keep all of it; when the ninth is a Shabbat, the fast moves to Sunday. Most Conservative synagogues keep the traditional observances, though some feel the State of Israel has changed what the day means, and a debate over modifying the rites followed 1967. Classical Reform Judaism in the nineteenth century dropped the day, and liberal Jews now generally observe it less, though some Reform circles have sought to revive it in a reinterpreted form.[6–7, 16]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; Union for Reform Judaism, Tishah B'Av; Orthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av.
- VerifiedExploringJudaism.org; Orthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?.
- VerifiedExploringJudaism.org; Encyclopedia.com; Orthodox Union.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?.
- VerifiedExploringJudaism.org; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?; Orthodox Union.
- VerifiedExploringJudaism.org; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; Union for Reform Judaism, Tishah B'Av.
- VerifiedSefaria, Mishnah Taanit 4:6, William Davidson Edition; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedOrthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?; Sefaria, Mishnah Taanit 4:6.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; Union for Reform Judaism, Tishah B'Av; Orthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av.
- CorrectedOrthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av; Chabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?; Encyclopedia.com; ExploringJudaism.org.
- CorrectedEncyclopedia.com; Union for Reform Judaism, Tishah B'Av; ExploringJudaism.org.
- VerifiedOrthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedChabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?; Encyclopedia.com; Orthodox Union.
- VerifiedChabad.org, What Is Tisha B'Av?; Orthodox Union, All About Tisha b'Av.
- VerifiedExploringJudaism.org; Encyclopedia.com.