Not a lot of people have ever even heard of Tisha B'Av, yet it is considered the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. Wednesday night begins Tisha B'Av which lasts until sundown on Thursday. It is a day of deep mourning. A season of important holy days begins in fall (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, most importantly) , and Tisha B'Av sets a tone of contemplation and sadness in preparation. Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av is reportedly the date on which horrible things have happened to the Jewish community. Tisha B'Av most notably commemorates the First and Second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but other events have also occurred on this date.
According to Aish, in addition to the main reasons for this holy day, other tragedies occurring on the 9th of Av include the Spanish Inquisition expelling all Jews from Spain in 1492, and the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka concentration camp in 1942.
The sadnesses of this day are gathered up into a day of intense focus.
The entire Book of Lamentations is read that day in temples around the world. The book of lamentations does not resolve on an up note. It describes the suffering, the tears and the injustice. It hopes for redemption from all the ills, but at the end it still is not sure that G-d will restore all the loss. The prophet Jeremiah, the supposed author of this book, leaves off wondering if G-d still cares. It is a book written in the darkness of despair, the depth of sorrow.
Lamentations 5:19-22 ends the book by saying:
You, O LORD, remain forever;
Your throne from generation to generation.
Why do You forget us forever,
And forsake us for so long a time?
Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored;
Renew our days as of old,
Unless You have utterly rejected us,
And are very angry with us!
It is impossible to think of such things and not be reminded of the present -- of the voices of pain from around the globe, every country, every people, all who carry the yokes of injustice, all who bear the scars of war, of subjugation and oppression. Whether one is Jewish or in fact not religious at all, it makes sense to sit for a minute in quiet and let the pain of the world be heard.
That sadness is not an easy place to visit. But in order to come through to the other side to wholeness for ourselves and others, we need to listen to it,to experience it -- to let our sorrow, individual and communal, flow through us.
It is not pleasant to recall old pain. It is not pleasant to listen to current cries for compassion. But that is what we are called to do -- to stop - to listen - to be moved and impelled to action by what we hear.
As Fritz Perls was fond of saying -- "The only way out is through."
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Rachel, the Velveteen Rabbi says:
Tisha b'Av begins tomorrow night at sundown. Jewish tradition holds that five major catastrophes have fallen on this date, including the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.
...I see the fall of the temples as the incredibly painful birth pangs of a new era. Without the temple at our tradition's heart, we evolved rabbinic Judaism: a creative -- and portable -- transformation of our paradigm for communal living, prayer, and connection with God. From the vantage point of modernity, I can see the blessing which we were able to wrest from the rubble. I wouldn't go back to what we had before. But I find value in gathering with my community once a year to mourn our old losses, and to mourn the brokenness of the world in which we still live. To dive into the reality of human suffering, and to grapple again with the question of how to give our suffering meaning.
Aliza, a convert to Judaism, describes in moving terms, her first Tisha B'Av:
I spent my first Tisha B'av in Jerusalem. It wasn't so hard for be to let the sadness of the day wash over me. It was just a few months after my fibromyalgia diagnosis. I'd just quit my job for once and for all because of it. I didn't know what was next. I felt homeless, untethered, roaming the world like a lost little ghost.
It was powerful to be in Jerusalem of all places, the place where the Temple had been destroyed not once but twice. The first time I went to the Western Wall, The Kotel, I didn't know what to feel. All around me women were praying and crying and I was awed into silence.
Chana Rubin author of a Kosher food blog, gives suggestions for how to bst get through a fast in a healthy manner.
DeeDee describes the comemmorative day:
Customs On Tisha B’Av
Tisha B’Av is a full fast day, meaning that no food or drink can be consumed from one evening to the next. Pregnant women, nursing mothers and those who are severely ill are not allowed to participate in the fast because doing so would endanger their health. Observant Jews also refrain from bathing, wearing make-up or leather shoes (both symbols of luxury) or having sexual relations. Work is permitted on Tisha B’Av.
Synagogue services on Tisha B’Av are an emotional experience. During the evening service the book of Lamentations – a somber text about the destruction of the First Temple and the siege of Jerusalem - is read aloud, punctuated by sobs and wails from the congregation. Because people are in mourning, they don’t greet each other at the synagogue and they sometimes sit on the floor instead of in seats. The following day, during the morning service, men continue to express their sorrow by refraining from wearing tefillin.
Rabbi Jennifer Krause comments
On Tisha B'Av, we read verses from Eicha-the Book of Lamentations. Lamentations are regrets-for not acting when we had the chance, for wanting to undo what cannot be undone. As the world gets on in years, as each of us gets older, too, could we be the ones to learn to love with the maturity of experience and long memory that makes fast days a thing of the past? Tisha B'Av is an opportunity to imagine a world without regret, a world ripe with the possibilities that can only grow from love. And the day after Tisha B'Av is the time to build it. The morning after, we emerge from a period of sorrow by reaffirming life, love, and creation.