Tisha B’AvThe Day Jewish History Stood Still

It’s not just another date.

It’s the day both Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed centuries apart, but on the exact same Hebrew date: the 9th of Av.

The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Same day. Same heartbreak.

But the destruction didn’t begin with foreign armies. It began within us.

During the First Temple era, the Jewish people strayed from truth and justice turning to idolatry, corruption, and moral decay. During the Second Temple era, we kept the commandments but lost each other. Our Sages say the Second Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred.

When we’re divided even the holiest place in the world cannot stand.

After the destruction, we were scattered to Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Yemen, North Africa, Europe, Russia, and beyond. Today, there is hardly a country without a Jewish presence.

And it didn’t end there.

Other tragedies in Jewish history also occurred on Tisha B’Av:

• The decree that the generation of the desert would not enter the Land of Israel (Talmud, Ta’anit 29a)

• The fall of Betar in the Bar Kochba revolt and the killing of its inhabitants

• The plowing over of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Hadrian

• The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492

• The outbreak of World War I in 1914, which set the stage for WWII and the Holocaust also on Tisha B’Av

On this day, we remember. Not out of weakness but out of connection.

We fast. We sit low, like mourners. We don’t wear leather shoes, don’t bathe, don’t use perfumes, and don’t study Torah because it brings joy. We read the Book of Lamentations and recite elegies for the destruction.

Because the Jewish people never forget. Even after thousands of years we remember the pain in detail. Not just what happened, but why. And what we must repair.

The destruction began within and so will the rebuilding. When we choose to love. To unite. To be one people again.

May we merit to see the rebuilding of the Temple speedily in our days.

Amen.