Posted 8/06/2003 10:04:00 AM by Ocean Guy
Fast of Tisha B'Av... the Ninth of Av

This evening begins the Jewish day of mourning Tisha B’Av. Primarily, the fast commemorates the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was twice destroyed on the Ninth day of the Hebrew month Av, first in 586BCE and then again in 70CE. But the Temple’s destruction is not the only calamity that happened on the Ninth of Av. Here’s a partial list of disasters, some planned some merely coincidence to have occurred on the same date:

2248 or 1312 BCE ....... Spies Return from 40 days in Israel with Evil reports. Jewish people cry in despair
3175 or 586 BCE....... Destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezar. Beginning of Babylonian exile.
3830 or 70 CE ....... Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans under Titus. Two and a half million Jews die from war, famine and disease. A million more exiled throughout the Roman Empire.
3892 or 132 ....... Bar Kochba Revolt crushed
3893 or 133 ....... Rufus plows the Temple site and the Romans build pagan city Aelia Capotolina where Jerusalem stood.
4855 or 1095 ....... Pope Urban II declares the first Crusade. Many tens of thousands of Jews killed during the following three years.
5050 or 1290 ....... Jews expelled from Britain.
5252 or 1492 ....... Jews expelled from Spain
5315 or 1555 ....... First Ghetto established in Rome, Jews forced to move into small area and to pay for the wall around it, property outside the ghetto was confiscated, Men forced to wear yellow cloth on their hats and women forced to wear yellow scarves.
5674 or 1914 ....... WWI begins when Britain and Russia declare war on Germany.
5702 or 1942 ....... First Deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto

If you’re fasting, have an easy fast. If not, then please take a moment to remember... and maybe visit Kesher Talk.