A Time To Mourn

Tisha B'Av recalls tragic times in the history
of the Jewish people.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER

T

he ninth of Av has never
been a great day for Jews.
Both the First and Sec-
ond Temples were de-
stroyed on this day — first by the
Babylonians, then by the Ro-
mans.
On the ninth of Av in 1312
B.C.E., God decreed that the
Jews remain in the desert for 40
years. On this day in the year
135, the last Jewish fortress in
the Bar Kochba rebellion fell to
the Romans, and in 1492, the
ninth of Av was the last day by
which all Jews who would not
convert had to flee Spain.
Communities were destroyed
during the Crusades, the Talmud
was burned in Paris in 1242 and
deportation from the Warsaw
ghetto to Treblinka in 1942 be-
gan, all on this day. And World
War I began on Av 9.
Because of all-that, Jews have
used the ninth of Av, or Tisha
B'Av, (this year Tuesday, Aug.
12), as a day to commemorate
tragic times. Observant Jews fast

for a 25-hour period and assume
a position of mourning. It is not
a typicalyomtou, where Jews are
prohibited from driving or work-
ing, but Tisha B'Av is supposed
to be a day of reflecting and learn-
ing.
In some Orthodox syna-
gogues, congregants sit low to
the ground, as if they are mourn-
ing.
Most Reform congregations do
not view Tisha B'Av in the same
way that Orthodox and some
Conservative shuls do. For many
Reform worshipers, Tisha B'Av
has become a day to reflect on
the Holocaust, a time for intro-
spection.
"The classic Jewish response
to catastrophe is to renew life,"
writes Rabbi Yitz Greenberg in

The Jewish Way: Living the Hol-
idays.

"Every major Jewish cata-
strophe has led to the falling
away of some Jews as they lost
faith, but every major tragedy
has also led to revival, as other

Women at the Western Wall, davening on Tisha B'Av.

Jews strove harder to match
tragedy with hope."
Specifically in response to the
destruction of the Temple, the rab-
bis inserted prayers of mourning
into the liturgy and created mourn-
ing rituals. For instance, they said

a glass should "be broken at every
wedding in empathetic grief' for
the destruction of the Temple, "but
weddings were not to be stopped,"
Greenberg writes.
In observant circles, the three
weeks leading up to Tisha B'Av

have become a time of sorrow.
People do not cut their hair nor
engage in joyous occasions dur-
ing this time, and they do not buy
new items.

TIME TO MOURN page 24

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