Congregation Ohav Sholom

For eight hundred and thirty years there stood an edifice upon a Jerusalem hilltop which served as the point of contact between heaven and earth. So central was this edifice to the relationship between man and God that nearly two-thirds of the Mitzvot are contingent upon its existence. Its destruction is regarded as the greatest tragedy of our history, and its rebuilding will mark our ultimate redemption.

The three weeks between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av are designated as a time of mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temple and the resultant Galut (physical exile and spiritual displacement) in which we still find ourselves.

On 17 Tammuz of the year 3830 (70 CE) the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the armies of Rome, three weeks later, on the 9th of Av, the holy Temple was aflame. Tisha B'Av is also the date of the First Temple's destruction by the Babylonians in 3338 (422 BCE) after the Temple service was disrupted on 17 Tammuz (the breaching of Jerusalem's walls at the time of the first destruction was on 9 Tammuz).

These dates had already been the scene of tragic events in the very first generation of our nationhood: 17 Tammuz was the day Moses smashed the Tablets of the Covenant upon beholding Israel's worship of the Golden Calif; 9 Av was the day that God decreed that the generation of the Exodus shall die out in the desert, after they refused to proceed to the Holy Land in wake of the spies' demoralizing report. In these events lay the seeds of a breakdown in the relationship between God and Israel, a breakdown which reached its peak in the destruction of the Temple.

Tisha B'Av commemorates a list of catastrophes so severe, it is considered a day cursed by national tragedies. Besides the destruction of the two Temples, many other catastrophic events occurred. When the Jews rebelled against Roman rule in 135 CE, the Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in Betar. The massacre took place on the 9th of Av. The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 CE on Tisha B'Av. In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain came to a close when Queen Isabella and here husband Ferdinand ordered that the Jews be banished from the land. The Hebrew date on which no Jew was allowed any longer to remain in the land was the 9th of Av. World War II and the Holocaust, historians conclude, was actually the long drawn-out conclusion of World War I that began in 1914. And, amazingly enough, the first World War also began on Tisha B'Av. On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto began, en route to Treblinka.

Jews see this as another confirmation of the deeply held conviction that history is not haphazard, events-even terrible ones-are part of a Divine plan and have spiritual meaning.

The 17th of Tammuz (July 9, 2009) is a fast day, on which we refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to nightfall. Tisha B'Av (July 29-30, 2009) is a more stringent fast, it commences at sunset of the previous evening, and additional pleasures (washing, anointing with perfumes, wearing leather shoes, and marital relations) are also prohibited. On Tisha B'Av we gather in the synagogue to read Eicha, the Book of Lamentations composed by Jeremiah, and Kinot (elegies) on the destruction and exile.

During the Three Weeks, no weddings or other joyous events are held, like mourners, we do not cut our hair, purchase new clothes, or listen to music. Additional mourning practices are assumed during the "Nine Days" beginning on 1 Av, such as refraining from eating meat and drinking wine.

But there is more to the Three Weeks than fasting and lamentation. The prophet describes the fasts as "days of goodwill before God," days of opportunity to exploit the failings of the past as the impetus for a renewed and even deeper bond with God. A sense of purification accompanies the fasting, a promise of redemption pervades the mourning, and a current of joy underlies the sadness. The Ninth of Av, say our sages, is not only the day of the Temple's destruction; it is also the birthday of Moshiach.