On the Jewish calendar: 9 Av (July-August)
…Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself like I have done these so many years? Zechariah 7:5
HOLIDAY BACKGROUND
Amidst the joys of the year’s celebrations also come heavy days of sorrow. Such is this time of year. Tisha B’Av (meaning literally “the ninth of Av”) is the culmination of a three-week mourning period begun on the 17th of Tammuz the month before (commemorating the day that the walls of Jerusalem were first breached by the Romans in 69 C.E.). At Rosh Chodesh, or the first day of Av, begins the final nine days of the three-week grieving time, bringing with it an intensified state of solemnity. The mourning period climaxes on its final day, Tisha B’Av. On this fateful day, Israel has experienced much tragedy including the following:
1. The “bad report” from the twelve spies to Canaan and resulting decree that the nation would therefore not enter the Land.
Numbers: Chapters 13 & 14.
2. Destruction and burning of the First Temple (586 B.C.E.)
3. Destruction of the Second Temple including 2.5 million Jewish deaths (70 C.E.)
4. Defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 C.E.)
5. The falling of Betar (132 C.E.)
6. Romans ploughed the Temple Mount to construct the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina in its stead (133 C.E.)
7. The Siege and Razing of Jerusalem (614 C.E.)
8. First Crusade declared by Pope Urban II (1095 C.E.)
9. The Expulsion of Jews from England including the confiscation of all property and burning of sacred texts and writings (1290)
10. The deadline of the Alhambra Decree (1492)
11. Germany declared war, beginning events culminating in the Holocaust (1914)
12. Deportation of Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka (1924)
13. Deadly bombing of Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center (1994)
14. Expulsion of Gush Katif/Gaza Strip (2005)
15. II Lebanon War (2006)
TRADITIONAL OBSERVANCE
This mourning period beginning on the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av is a time of forfeiting pleasure while mourning the sadness of the nation’s tragedies. Especially on Tisha B’Av, the days are observed by a denial of comfort in commemoration of the many losses of Israel this day-the collective sadness of a nation over the ages is made personal. This is a day of fasting. The first pleasures denied on this day are eating and drinking. Like Yom Kippur, this includes a prohibition against washing or bathing (only hands up to knuckles). No creams, oils or cosmetics are used. No leather shoes are worn. No music is played or enjoyed. No displays of affection, public or private, are indulged. This also includes a ban on weddings, parties, and trivial gaiety until after the period of mourning is past. Even the Torah cabinet (ark) in the synagogue itself is draped in black. Lamentations are read, but no study of the Torah is permitted, as the Torah is a joyous gift. The time is reserved for mourning and weeping for the sorrows of the past. This is balanced with a cautious look toward the future with earnest prayers to ensure that the days ahead are spared the horror and dread of days past.
Jeremiah conveys the mood of the day with his lament:
Restore us to you, O LORD,
that we may be restored;
Renew our days as of old,
Unless You have utterly rejected us
And are exceedingly angry with us. Lamentations 5:21-22, NASB.
HOW CAN THIS BENEFIT THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY?
Yeshua is believed to have wandered in the wilderness during this time, with his temptations falling upon or around Tisha B’Av. How can we know this? The Jewish calendar has assigned Torah readings throughout the year. Each week has its own assigned text-that never changes. When we look at the answers that Yeshua gave to the tempter in the wilderness, they all came from Deuteronomy chapters six through eight. Interestingly enough, these passages appear in close proximity in the Torah readings. Therefore, if these were also the Torah readings of the time of year that Yeshua quoted them, we can date the time to have occurred during the time of Tisha B’Av. This would be quite logical, as Tisha B’Av is a time of fasting for the woes of Israel past and present. Yeshua fasted on account of the woes and judgments of Israel past and future- to include the believers “grafted into” the nation.