Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Tisha B’Av

1. The fast day of Tisha B'Av was established by rabbinic ordinance. The fast was first mentioned in the Prophets, and the Mishnah ordained it to mark the destruction of the Temples — the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, by Titus and the Romans.

2. The fast falls on the 9th of Av, for a full day, and it is the culmination of the Three Weeks mourning period. This fast is the most serious of the four fast days related to the destruction of the Temple.

3. The five main prohibitions ordained for Tisha B'Av include eating and drinking, wearing leather shoes, smearing oils on the body, washing and cohabitation between a couple.

4. Other actions are prohibited on Tisha B'Av because of mourning, such as: a prohibition of learning Torah, doing work, greeting people, sitting on a chair (until noon) and more.

5. There were several tragedies that occurred to the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av, which left an impact on all generations.

6. The tractate of Ta'anit mentions that there were five cataclysmic incidents that occurred on this day: A. It was decreed upon the generation of the desert that they would not come to the Land of Israel because of the sin of the spies. B. The destruction of the First Temple. C. The destruction of the Second Temple. D. The city of Beitar was conquered by the Romans — an event that signified the failure of the Bar Kochba revolt. E. The Romans plowed over Jerusalem.

7. The expulsion of English Jewry was also decreed on Tisha B'Av, on July 18, 1290. Edward I of England ordered that all Jews be expelled from his country by November 1, 1290, and that those who remained after that date would be executed.

8. The Expulsion from Spain was also carried out on Tisha B'Av in 1492. The three months given to the Jews to leave Spain ended on the night 8 Av 1492. Despite the extension ending two days before Tisha B'Av, this event is etched in the collective memory of the Jewish people as part of the tragedies that occurred on Tisha B'Av.

9. The mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Auschwitz death camp began on the 9th of Av, 1942.

10. According to tradition, after the Messiah comes and the Third Temple will be built, Tisha B'Av, like the other fasts over the destruction, will become a day of celebration and joy. The Jerusalem Talmud states that the Messiah will be born on Tisha B'Av.
 

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