In the midst of the hottest time of the summer when the land of Israel is parched and dry, Jews pause to commemorate the holiday of Tisha B’Av, literally the “ninth of Av.” Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 CE and the Romans in 70 CE. Over the course of history other Jewish tragedies have become associated with Tisha B’Av – the end of the Bar Kochba revolt (135 CE), the massacre of hundreds of Jews in the Rhine district of Germany during the First Crusade (1096), the expulsion of the Jews from England (1290), the explusion of the Jews from Spain (1492), the Chielminicki massacre in the Ukraine (1648), and the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto (1941). Tisha B’Av provides the opportunity to mourn for our nation’s and the world’s suffering.
Like Yom Kippur, Tisha B’Av is commemorated with a full-day fast – no water, no food, no washing, no sex, and no wearing of leather. The Book of Lamentations is read in the evening and it is customary to sit on the floor by candlelight in synagogue.
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