Religious Living  /  Observance

Tisha B'av

Tisha B'av

9 Av

This article was written by Stephen Butterfass for Religious Living on the Web

"You have covered Yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through" (Lamentations 3:44)

In the heat and glare of a Jerusalem summer, the Temple was consumed by flames; the people of the city, enslaved and probably degraded, were led into captivity and exile by the conqueror. The Temple in Jerusalem, "the house of the God of Jacob", was destroyed twice: in 586 B.C.E. by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and in 70 C.E. by Roman legions under the command of Vespasian and Titus. Exile from the land, loss of political sovereignty, and the devastation following the military defeats remained an open wound for centuries, until the rebirth of the State of Israel.

The ninth of Av, in Hebrew Tisha B'Av, is the date tradition has assigned to these calamities.This day was also chosen by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 to expel the Jews of Spain. In the Jewish cycle of seasons, Tisha B'Av is commemorated as a day of mourning and fasting.

All these historical events, with their political and cultural consequences, are merely a backdrop for the lessons developed by the rabbis as they sought to fix and preserve the meaning of Tisha B'Av. For them, the themes were alienation from and the loss of God's Presence. They taught that the Schechinah (God's spirit or presence on earth) had gone into exile, and that Jerusalem had been destroyed for the sins of the Jewish people.

The biblical text that is read on this day is Lamentations. It truly is a lament, a dirge for the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem and for the suffering of its people during war, siege, and capture. It contains a confession of the people's sins and a forlorn picture of the former Temple site (where wild animals now made their dens) and ends with a poignant plea, a prayer and a hope that God would restore the people to divine favor: "Turn us unto You, Adonai, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old. Can you have so utterly rejected us and be so greatly angry with us"?

Preparations for Tisha B'Av begin several weeks earlier, on the 17th day of Tammuz (Shiv'ah Asar B'Tammuz). This date recalls the first breach of the walls of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 586 B.C.E. Tradition assigns a daylight fast to this day, and weddings and other celebratory activity are not scheduled until after Tisha B'Av. The somberness of the mood is intensified by the words of the haftarah, the Prophetic reading, chosen for each of the following three Shabbats. Each predicts Jerusalem's end and rebukes Israel for its moral decay, none more damning than this passage from the Book of Isaiah: "How the faithful city has become a whore! She was full of justice, righteousness dwelled in her, but now, murderers". (Isaiah 1:21 ).

Unless the 9th of Av falls on Shabbat and is observed a day later, tradition demands the same types of abstinence required for Yom Kippur: eating, drinking, washing, wearing leather, and sexual activity are proscribed. Prayer services are conducted in darkened synagogues. Congregants, acting like mourners rather than worshippers, sit on the floor or low to the ground. They listen to the prayers, readings, and dirges that are chanted, the low voices and mournful melodies suitable to the feeling of grief the ancient losses are supposed to recall.

The first Shabbat after Tisha B'Av is called Shabbat Nachamu, from the reading from Isaiah (40:1-26) that begins "Nachamu, Nachamu, ami - Comfort you, comfort you, My people, bid Jerusalem take heart, proclaim to her that her time of servitude is ended, her guilt paid off..." On each of the six Shabbats that follow, the Prophetic readings are also from the Book of Isaiah, each poetic pronouncement radiating the hope and promise that forgiveness and redemption are possible: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Eternal rises over you...Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders...the sun shall no longer be your light by day, neither shall the moon give you light; The Eternal shall be an eternal light for you, and your God, your glory" (Isaiah 60:1,18,19).

The cycle of the Jewish year moves through its phases as the moons wax and wane. The themes of destruction and renewal, despair and redemption, are never far from our consciousness. After ashes and laments, we move away from alienation toward repentance and redemption; for it is seven weeks to Rosh Hashanah, when we complete the circle of our year and begin it again with renewed hope.

Shabbat
Chametz
Chanukah
Counting the Omer
Elul
Havdalah
Jonah
Kiddush for the Eve of Yom Tov
Kohelet
Kol Nidre
On Death and Mourning
Pesach
Proverbs
Purim
Rosh Hashanah
Shavuot
Simchat Torah
Song of Songs
Sukkot
The Scroll of Ruth
Tu B'Shevat
Words of the Prophets
Yom Ha'Atzma'ut
Yom HaShoah
Yom Kippur
Kiddush