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:
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)
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.
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.
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.
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:
In 1290, the signature of the edict by King Edward I expelling the Jews from England
The burning of the Talmud in 1242
The declaration of the Crusades by Pope Urban II in 1095
The Alhambra decree was put into effect, leading to the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492
The First World War started in 1914
The first killings at Treblinka took place in 1942
The AMIA Bombing (Asociación Mutua Israelita Argentina) by Arab terrorists on July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 86 and wounded more than 120.
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).
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 five main prohibitions:
No leather shoes are worn.
A day without eating or drinking of any kind (unless there is a life-threatening need to do so for pikuach nefesh -- "saving of life")
No bathing, showering, or washing of any kind.
No anointing oneself with creams or oils. Skin creams are prohibited.
Sexual relations, hugging, kissing, and all forms of physical affection, are prohibited.
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. 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).
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, some religious Zionists opined that the commemoration of Tisha B'Av would have to be modified, and possibly overturned.
Conservative and Masort 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:
Rabbi Theodore Friedman wrote that: "There is already an historical precedent in Megillat Ta'anit which stipulated days on which we may not fast because of salvation wrought for Israel. In our time we have been vouchsafed a great salvation in the establishment of the State... It therefore seems to us that this great historical turning point in Israel's history should be celebrated by not completing the fast on 9th Av, but concluding it after the midday Minchah."
Rabbi David Golinkin wrote [2], concluding "It is forbidden to fast only half the day on Tish'a b'Av for several reasons:
we have demonstrated that during the period of the Second Temple they did fast on Tish'a b'Av...
From the halakhic point of view this is not possible. Either we must fast on all four of the fasts [and Tisha b'Av] or on Tish'a b'Av alone...
From the ideological point of view, we cannot yet say that we have reached the period of "peace". We should revert to the custom of the Ge'onim ... and fast the whole day on Tish'a b'Av and declare the other fast days to be voluntary and not compulsory."
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