THE EVENTS OF TISHA B´AV

BY RICHARD SISON | 2016

INTRODUCTION
Tisha B'Av also known as "the ninth of Av” (Hebrew: תשעה באב or ט׳ באב ) is an annual day of remembrance and a fast day among the Jewish people. It is a day when they commemorate the anniversary of a several disasters that occurred in Jewish history. The most notable is the destruction of both the First Temple by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by the Romans in Jerusalem."
The 9th of Av is considered as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar and it is therefore believed to be a day which is destined for tragedy."

In the year is 1313 BCE, the Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. In the process of conquering the Promised Land, first they dispatch a reconnaissance mission to assist in formulating a prudent battle strategy. The spies return on the eighth day of Av and report that the land is unconquerable. That night, the 9th of Av, the people cry. They insist that they'd rather go back to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites. G‑D is highly displeased by this public demonstration of distrust in His power, and consequently that generation of Israelites never enters the Holy Land. Only their children have that privilege, after wandering in the desert for another 38 years."

The First Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Av (586 BCE). Five centuries later (in 70 CE), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, ready to torch it, the Jews were shocked to realize that their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first."

Six decades after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews once again rebelled against Roman rule. They believed that their leader, Simon bar Kochba, would fulfill their messianic longings. But their hopes were cruelly dashed in 133 CE as the Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar in the 9th of Av. One year after their conquest of Betar, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount, Israel’s holiest site."​

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