PARASHIOT- Devarim – Words
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Israel’s history after the Exodus
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Wanderings in the Wilderness
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Conquests Recounted
Tisha B’Av means the Ninth of Av. Av is the fifth month, and it falls in the heat of summer. It is a time of mourning and fasting for the destruction of the Temple of the L-rd. Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 532 B.C.E. by Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon (2 Kings 25:9). All of the Festivals of the L-rd are called two different words in Hebrew. One word is MO’ED which means an "appointment". The other word is MIKRAH which means a "rehearsal". All of the festivals are set appointments that G-d keeps, and that we can keep as rehearsals of the Day of the L-rd.
This fast of Av, though it is not listed as a festival of the L-rd in Leviticus 23, is also a rehearsal, and an appointment. The second temple, the temple of Herod that stood in the first century, was destroyed in 70 C.E. over 500 years after the destruction of Solomon’s temple. And, it too, was destroyed on exactly the same day!
Yeshua prophesied that the Jews' enemies would cast up a mound and surround the city and destroy the Temple in one generation (Luke 21 & 22).
He said this on the 10th of Aviv as He rode into the city as the Lamb chosen to die for the nations. One generation is equal to 40 years.
The Romans surrounded the city on the 10th of Aviv, and leveled the temple on the Night of Av, exactly 40 years later in 70 C.E.
This fast will be a feast in the Day of the L-rd: "The fast of the fifth month (Av) shall be to the house of Judah joy
and gladness and a cheerful feast, so love truth and peace" (Zech 8:19).
A LISTING OF INFAMOUS EVENTS THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE
ON THE NINTH OF AV THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Hebrew Year (Common Year)
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2448 (1312 B.C.E.) - Spies return from 40 days in Israel with evil reports of the Land of Israel. Jewish people cry in despair, give up hope of entering the land of Israel.
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3340 (421 B.C.E.) – Destruction of first temple by the Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar. About 100,000 Jews killed during invasion. Exile of remaining tribes in southern kingdom to Babylon and Persia.
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3830 (70 C.E.) - Destruction of second temple by the Romans, under Titus. Over 2,500,000 Jews die as a result of war, famine and disease. Over 1,000,000 Jews sold as slaves by Romans. Jews killed and tortured in gladiatorial "games" and pagan celebrations.
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3892 (132 C.E.) - Bar Kochba (claimed as false Messiah) and revolt crushed, Betar destoyed – over 100,000 killed.
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3893 (133 C.E.) - Turnus Rufus ploughs site of temple. Romans build Pagan City of Aelia Capitolina on site of Jerusalem.
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4855 (1095 C.E. - First Crusade declared by Pope Urban II, 10,000 Jews killed in first month of Crusade. Crusades bring death and destruction to thousands of Jews, totally obliterate many communities in Rhineland and France.
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5050 (1290 C.E.) - Expulsion of Jews from England, accompanied by pograms and confiscation of books and property.
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5252 (1492 C.E.) - Inquisition in Spain and Portugal culminates in the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. Families separated, many die by drowning, massive loss of property.
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5674 (1914 C.E.) - Britain and Russia declare war on Germany. First World War begins. First World War issues unresolved, ultimately causing Second World War and Holocaust. 75% of all Jews in war zones. Jews in armies of all sides.- 120,000 Jewish casualties in armies. Over 400 pogroms begun immediately following war in Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.
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5702 (1942 C.E.) - Deportations of Jews from Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Concentration camps.
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5749 (1989 C.E.) - Iraq walks out of talks with Kuwait.
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5754 (1994 C.E.) - The deadly bombing of the AMIA (the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina) which killed 86 people and wounded some 300 others.
HOW IS IT OBSERVED TODAY?
In the course of time, Jewish law and custom evolved several degrees of public mourning from SHIVAH ASAR BE-TAMMUZ.The subsequent THREE WEEKS culminate in the NINE DAYS beginning on the New Moon of Av and reach a climax on the eve of Tishah B'Av. The last meal is frugal, with an egg symbolizing the mourner’s traditional fare (some Eastern communities dip the food in ashes as a sign of mourning). Thereafter, eating and drinking are forbidden during the fast day. Other prohibitions ban shaving, bathing, and marital relations, wearing leather shoes, engaging in work, or even indulging in normal Torah study. The appearance of the synagogue during Tishah B'Av bears witness to the melancholy historical associations of this date. At nightfall, the curtain is removed from the Holy Ark. The cloth is taken away from the bimah (reading desk) and the lights are dimmed. Congregants, in cloth or rubber footwear, sit on low stools or on the floor and do not greet one another. The synagogue’s whole atmosphere is in fact transformed. The joyous house of prayer becomes a place of mourning.As if to banish the last vestige of joyous ceremonial, the tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin are not worn at the Morning Service, these being considered religious "ornaments" inappropriate to so mournful an occasion. On this one day in the year, however, they are worn later at the Afternoon Service, and then removed before evening prayers. Normal seats are occupied in the afternoon, an abbreviated havdalah is recited at the end of the fast if Tishah B'Av occurs on Sunday, and no meat meals are eaten until the following day.The special scroll read for Tishah B'Av is the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Ekhah), which describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in poetic and moving terms. The scroll and all but the last two verses of the morning haftarah are chanted to a plaintive melody. Ekhah is read in all synagogues on the night of the fast. Some congregations also include it in the morning Service after the Torah reading.
(Encyclopedia Judaica)
written and / or assembled by Cal Goldberg, Messianic Leader, Beth Shechinah
© 2001, Beth Shechinah, except where copyright otherwise indicated. For permissions to use material from this site, email Messianic Leader, Cal Goldberg.
