תשעה באב: tishe bov / tish’a be‘av
This has always been one of the more complex Jewish holidays for me to understand. I mean, I understand it logically, I know what happened on this day. But it’s so much harder for me to feel it in my heart, you know what I mean? The Second Temple period of Judaism feels as foreign to me as Canaanite paganism. I thought I would share some things I’ve learned about the yontef in my quest to understanding it:
According to the Mishna (Ta’anit 4:6), תשעה באב marks the commmemoration of what is know as the “5 calamities” [1]
The return of the 12 spies that Moshe-Rabeinu sent to investigate Eretz Yisroel. 10 of them had bad news which caused the Bney Yisroel to despair and provoked Hashem to banish them to wander the desert until that generation had died off
The 1st Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587, beginning the Babylonian Exile
The 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, beginning the modern diaspora
The Romans crushed the Bar Kochba revolt and destroyed the city of Betar in 135 CE
The temple and surrounding areas were plowed over by the Romans, also in 135 CE
In many Jewish communities, תשעה באב is used to commemorate the Holocaust (Seasons of Our Joy, Aurthor Waskow 1990).
In fact, in the community I grew up in, this holiday was often treated as a second Holocaust memorial day--which makes sense in one way and doesn’t in another. It is a catastrophe that feels realer to most modern Jews, a gateway to commemorating this day of destruction.
Waskow introduced me to the fact that many object to commemorating the Holocaust on this day because the traditional Jewish interpretation of this day is that for our sins the Temple was destroyed--I can certainly see why there are those that object to this practice!
The main observations on תשעה באב are [1]
Not wearing creams or oils/cosmetics in general
Not wearing leather shoes
Avoiding sexual relations
Some congregations use Tisha b’Av as a time to commemorate other atrocities, such as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which were on August 6 and 9, 1945 on the gentile calendar and sometimes overlap with תשעה באב)
In 1981, when תשעה באב fell on Nagasaki Day, a group of Jews undertook traditional ceremonies near the White House and Soviet Embassy as a statement on world destruction (Waskow, 1990)
