Tisha B'Av

Tisha b'Av (Hebrew: תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב, romanized: Tišʿā Bəʾāḇ, lit. 'ninth of Av') is an annual ta'anit (fast day) in Rabbinic Judaism. (Qaraite Judaism fasts on the 7th and 10th of Av.) It is a commemoration of a number of disasters in Jewish history, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusalem.

Tisha b'Av precedes the end of The Three Weeks. This day is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. It is categorized as a day destined for tragedy. Tisha b'Av falls in July or August in the Gregorian calendar.

Observances of the day include five prohibitions, most notable of which is a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem, is read in synagogue, followed by the recitation of kinnot, liturgical dirges that lament the loss of the Temples and Jerusalem. As the day has become associated with remembrance of other major calamities which have befallen the Jewish people, some kinnot also recall events such as the murder of the Ten Martyrs by the Romans; expulsions from England, Spain, and elsewhere; massacres of numerous medieval Jewish communities by Crusaders; the Holocaust; and for some, the October 7 attacks.

According to the Mishnah, Taanit 4:6, five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting:

Over time, Tisha b'Av has evolved into a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for subsequent tragedies that occurred on or near the 9th of Av. References to some of these events appear in liturgy composed for Tisha b'Av (see below). Note that dates prior to 1582 are in the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar.

While the Holocaust spanned a number of years, religious communities use Tisha b'Av to mourn its 6,000,000 Jewish victims, either in addition to or instead of the secular Holocaust memorial days such as Yom HaShoah. On Tisha b'Av, communities that otherwise do not modify the traditional prayer liturgy have added the recitation of special kinnot related to the Holocaust.

Similarly, within Religious Zionist communities, the 2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip is mourned on Tisha b'Av as well, a practice supported by Religious Zionist rabbis like Yaakov Ariel and Dov Lior. Kinnot have been composed about the withdrawal, and the connection to Tisha b'Av was emphasized in ten-year anniversary commemorations. Although the disengagement operation had been delayed specifically to avoid coinciding with The Three Weeks and Tisha b'Av, the timing lent itself to symbolic interpretation both by Religious Zionists and by wider Jewish culture. However, even within Religious Zionism, Chaim Navon holds that the disengagement did not rise to the level of a calamity and Shlomo Aviner has written that mourning the disengagement on Tisha b'Av is forbidden because it incites political division. Yona Metzger, then Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, ruled in 2006 that the disengagement was a tragedy but mourning rituals should not be integrated into Tisha b'Av, while Howard Jachter, a prominent Orthodox scholar who is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, permits it in narrow fashion.

Kinnot regarding the October 7 attacks have also been added to the Tisha b'Av liturgy.