Tisha B'Av

Today is Tisha B’Av. That probably means absolutely nothing to most of you unless you either speak Hebrew or are already aware of this annual day of fasting in Judaism. Tisha B’Av, rendered in English as the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is a day of mourning and fasting for the Jewish people and a day believed to be accursed because of the many tragedies that have befallen them on this day.

According to the Mishnah (Jewish oral tradition) Tish B'Av is the anniversary of the day that the Spies brought back the bad report. Numbers 13 & 14 tell the story of when Joshua, Moses’ successor, sent 12 men to scout out the Land that God had covenanted to their father Abraham. After 40 days spent in the Land, 10 of the 12 spies said that they were not capable of possessing that which God had promised them. Because of their unbelief the Hebrew people were prohibited from entering the Promised Land and were forced to wander in the desert forty more years until that adult generation had died out.

Since that day the 9th of Av has proven to be a day wrought with tragedy.

• 586 BC, Solomon's Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonian captivity began;

• AD 70, the Second Temple, which stood during Christ's ministry, was destroyed by the Romans precisely as Jesus predicted in Luke 19;

• AD 135, the famous Bar Kokhba revolt was squelched when Bethar, the last Jewish stronghold, fell to the Romans;

• AD 136, the Roman Emperor Hadrian established a heathen temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, and renamed the land as Palestina, to distance its Jewish heritage. The date when the Temple area was plowed under by the Romans was the 9th of Av;

• 1290, The Jews were expelled from England;

• 1492, The Jews of Spain were expelled under the Alhambra Decree by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella;

• 1914, World War I erupted, setting the stage for World War II and the Holocaust;

• 1942, Mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp began on Tisha B'Av eve;

• 2005, The citizens of Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip, spent their last legal day in their homes on Tisha B'Av, and were expelled three days later;

• 2008, Interestingly last year’s invasion by Russia into South Ossetia, a break-away region within the Republic of Georgia, began on Tisha B’Av. While this event appears to differ from the rest because the 5 day Russia-Georgia War was not directly against the Jewish people, it is noteworthy that South Ossetia is an ally of Israel and her troops were trained by Israel Defense Forces. Lasha Zhvania, head of the Georgian Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee declared, “Today isn't just the Jews' Tisha B'Av, it’s a Tisha B'Av for Georgia as well." Also Tskhinvali, the capitol of South Ossetia, was once known for its sizable Jewish community and Jewish quarter.

• 2009, Guess we will see?