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Die Zerstörung des Tempels von Jerusalem - Francesco Hayez (1867)

• The First Temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE.

• The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. ; Scientific Date of Destruction of Herod's Temple in AD70

• The issue of the decree forbidding the generation of Israelites who left Egypt to enter the Land of Israel.

• The capture of Betar, the last stronghold of the leaders of the The Bar Kochba Revolt, in 135 BCE.

• The establishment of a heathen temple on the site of the Temple, one year later, by the Roman emperor Hadrian. He rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city - renamed Aelia Capitolina - which was forbidden to Jews.

• The expulsion of Jews from Spain, after centuries of Jewish cultural and spiritual growth.

• The initiation of the deportation of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

• The 2005 Gaza Pullout began on Tisha B.Av

Destruction of Jerusalem (Churban Yerushalayim) materials are available at the Josephus Archive & Churban HaBayit

Tisha B'av
Day of Tragedy / Day of the Lord?

Day of the Lord | 9th or 10th of Av? | Stone Piles that Memorialize Jerusalem's Destruction | Expulsion of Jews from Spain | 9th of Av | The lessons of Tisha Be'Av

• Tisha Be'Av: The Third Temple that wasn't Julian, who wanted to form a common cause with the Jews against Christianity, asked: "Why do you not sacrifice to God, as required by the laws of Moses?"  The Jews replied: "We are not allowed by our laws to sacrifice outside our Holy City. How can we do it now? Restore to us the City, rebuild the Temple and the altar, and we shall offer sacrifices, as in days of old."  He promised: "I shall endeavor with the utmost zeal to set up the Temple of the Most High God."

• 7/23/7: When God Moved Out "Then, in the middle of the night one night, I woke up from a drunken stupor. I must have been out for a long time, maybe the whole previous day. I looked around and discovered that Jeff and the kids were gone. I mean really gone. They had moved out and taken all their stuff with them. I couldn't believe it. Jeff was always crazy about me. I was sure he'd come back. I was sure until the day the divorce papers arrived by registered mail. Then I knew that I had ruined my life. That's when I started to come to AA.  On Tisha B'Av God walked out on us and took His house with Him. "

• 7/23/7: Group seeks to make AD70 more relevant for secular Jews - "Kalmanovitz decided to use the words of the Jewish historian Josephus, who witnessed and survived the bloody ordeal of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. by the Romans. In his writings, Josephus describes not only the Second Temple's destruction, but also the Roman massacre of the Jewish population in the Holy City. "We deal with so many symbols that we tend to forget that these events happened to real people," Kalmanovitz says. The audience can expect to hear such horrific descriptions as "...They [The Romans] went in numbers into the ... city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook ... and set fire to the houses whither the Jews fled ... and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood." (Jewish Wars, Book VI, chapter 8, paragraph 5)"

• 10/27/5: History through a Jewish lens: The War of Tisha B'av - "This translation comes from my Artscroll edition of the Chumash, pages 1081 and 1085.  First, Devarim/Deuteronomy 28:49-50:   HaShem will carry against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as an eagle will swoop, a nation whose language you will not understand, a brazen nation that will not be respectful to the old nor gracious to the young.  Rambam comments on Deuteronomy 28:49 that Vespasian and his son Titus came from Rome to conquer the Land of Israel and destroy Jerusalem and the Second Temple.  The awful conditions described though verse 57 took place during the siege of Jerusalem.  A yeshiva student studying these lines in Warsaw on the night of Wednesday, August 30, 1939, would have read Rambam in the Hebrew, saying exactly what I quoted you.  However, if he had time to follow the reading of the Torah in shul (synagogue) on September 2 and could concentrate upon it, instead of the screaming of the Luftwaffe overhead, he might have had a very different comprehension of these same lines. "

• A Breach in the Walls - Israel Today "Historian Flavius Josephus, an eyewitness of all that took place, described these scenes in his book The Jewish War, recounting how the Romans made the first breach in the wall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This was the beginning of the end of the Jewish homeland at that time in history....   But even if the (current) pullout takes place just after the 9th of Av, the proximity to this tragic period is allegorical. The Palestinians are poised to create the first breach into the Promised Land, an event they see as the beginning of the end of Zionism. The question is whether this is the beginning of the end, as it was in 70 AD, or is it simply a turning point? After all, God has promised to change Israel’s destiny for good: “I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:14)."

The Targumim of the Megillot
(Lamentations 1)
"2 When Moses the Prophet sent messengers to spy out the land, the messengers returned and gave forth a bad report concerning the land of Israel. This was the night of the ninth of Ab. When the people of the House of Israel heard this bad report which they had received concerning the land of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and the people of the House of Israel wept during that night. Immediately the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he decreed that it should be thus in that night throughout their generations over the destruction of the Temple. "

 "19 "When I was delivered into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar," Jerusalem said, "I called to my friends, sons of the nations, with whom I had made treaties, to come to my aid. But they deceived me and turned to destroy me. (These are the Romans who entered with Titus and the wicked Vespasian and they built siegeworks against Jerusalem.) My priests and my elders within the city perish from hunger, because they searched for sustenance for themselves to eat, in order to preserve their lives. " (Targum Lamentations)

``On the "ninth of Ab" it was decreed concerning our fathers, that they should not enter into the land (of Canaan), the first and second temple were destroyed, Bither was taken, and the city ploughed up.'' (Misu. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 7. T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 3. & Maimon. Hilch. Taanioth, c. 5. sect. 2.)

``If I had been in the generation (which fixed the fast for the destruction of the first temple), I would not have fixed it but on the tenth (of Ab); for, adds he, the greatest part of the temple was burnt on that day; but the Rabbins rather regarded the beginning of the punishment.'' (T. Bab, Taanith, fol. 29. 1.)

``what is the meaning of these words, "the day of vengeance is in my heart?" Says R. Jochanan, to my heart I have revealed it, to the members I have not revealed it: says R. Simeon ben Lakish, to my heart I have revealed it, "to the ministering angels I have not revealed it".'' (T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 99. 1.)

Rabbi Yochanan
"Had I been alive in that generation, I would have fixed [the day of mourning] for the tenth [of Av], because the greater part of the Temple was burnt on that day." ( The 10th of Av: When the Temple was in Flames)

(1) As Tisha B'Av has been a day of Jewish misfortune and unfortunate occurrences throughout Jewish history, so too has been the Tenth of Av. Will history record that on the Tenth of Av in the year 5765, the process of the expulsion of the Jews from their homes in Gaza began?"

Tragedy in Perspective

"The replacement for Vespasian, the newly crowned Emperor, was the wicked Titus, from whose mouth the verse 'Where is their G-d, the Rock in Whom they trusted?' seemed to come. For Titus blasphemed and cursed Heaven!"

"What did he do? He seized a prostitute, and entered the Holy of Holies, spread out a Sefer Torah, and committed a sin on it. He then took a sword and thrust it into the curtain dividing between the Holy and the Holy of Holies. A miracle occurred and blood spurted forth, causing him to think that he had killed "himself" (where "himself" is a euphemism for Heaven)…"

"Abba Chanan says, 'Who is like You, O Strong One, G-d?' (Psalms/Tehilim 89:9), 'Who is like You Strong and Hard, for You hear the blasphemy and the cursing of that wicked person, and are silent?' "

"In the Yeshiva/Academy of Rabbi Yishmael it was taught, 'Who is like you among the mighty (e-lim), O G-d?' (Shemot 15:11), 'Who is like You among the silent ones (il-mim), O G-d?' "

"What did he do?"

"He took the curtain and made it like a sack and he brought all the holy vessels from the Temple and put them into it, and placed the curtain with the vessels on a ship for transport to Rome where he would use them to boast (as we see to this day recorded on the Arch of Titus)."…

"On the way to Rome, a giant wave was about to crash down on his ship and sink it, when Titus again blasphemed, 'It seems that the G-d of the Jews has power only on the water; let Him come onto the land and fight me!' Whereupon a Heavenly voice was heard, saying to him, 'Wicked person, the son of a wicked person, the grandson of Esav, the wicked! I have a small creature who lives on the land. Get off the boat and fight with it.' "

"As he stepped off the boat, a small insect entered through his nose and lodged in his brain, where it pecked for seven years, causing him incredible agony… After he died, his brain was examined and they found in it a creature the size of a wild bird weighing two selahs. Before he died, he instructed that his body be cremated, and his ashes scattered over the seven seas, so that the G-d of the Jews would not be able to find him and bring him to Judgment."

"Onkelos the son of Kalonykos was a nephew of Titus, and he considered converting to Judaism. He had his uncle raised from the dead by magic and asked him, 'Who is most important in the next world?' Titus answered, 'The Jews are.' Onkelos asked, 'Should I attach myself to them?' Titus responded, 'No! They have too many laws; you wouldn't be able to observe them all. Better to fight against them and be a leader in the world, as it says, 'Those who oppressed them were on top.' " (Megillat Eichah 1:5)

"Titus' nephew asked, 'What is your judgment in the next world?' 'My judgment is what I decreed on myself. Every day I am burnt anew and my ashes are scattered over the seven seas.' "