The most mourning day for Jews is the Ninth Ava ( Hebrew. תחּשב ⁇ עָה בּאָב Tish’a be-av ). On this day they don’t eat anything, don’t drink, they don’t put on leather shoes. The post starts from evening 8 ava a few minutes before sunset and ends after the appearance of stars in the sky in the evening of 9 ava.
Ava Day 9 — is also the only day of the year when a Jew is not only not obliged, but also has no right to study the Torah ( because learning is considered a source of joy ).
Initially, the post 9 Ava is associated with « the sin of scouts » — when Moses brought the Jews to the borders of the Promised Land, they were afraid to immediately enter it and beg Moses to send scouts so that, returning, they described the country and the prospects for life in it. And although this request was an expression of doubt in God, who brought the Jews out of Egypt and promised them this country, Moses nevertheless agreed to send chapters 12 of the tribes for exploration. Returning scouts reported that the country « was strengthened to the sky » and was inhabited by giants against whom the Jews « are small, like grasshoppers ». Only the heads of the two tribes claimed that the promised land was beautiful and that it was worth entering it. The people naturally believed the majority, and all night from the eighth to the ninth ava, the Jews cried, saying that God brought them to this country out of anger, and that it would be better if they died in the desert... Then God was angry and said that this time the Jews cried in vain, but now they will have many reasons to cry that night. Such will be the punishment for the sin of unbelief.
And the first punishment was the ban on a generation that left Egypt to enter the Holy Land. People who doubted God were doomed to wander around the — desert for a year for every day of intelligence and die in it, as they requested.
Secondly, because the Jews were afraid of ( despite all the miracles and signs of ) the peoples who inhabited Canaan and refused to enter Israel at the time chosen by God, it was said, that now Jews will be able to get this land only after heavy wars, although they could receive it in a wonderful way — without any effort.
And until the Jews repent of the sin of unbelief, this punishment will be with them, and more and more new reasons will appear for crying on this day.
Here is a list of sad events that have occurred over the centuries of 9th Ava:
• Ninth Av 2449 from the creation of the world ( 1313 BC ) The Almighty passed a sentence according to which the generation that had left Egypt was doomed to wander through the desert for 40 years and die without ever seeing the Land of Israel.
• Ninth Ava 3338 from the creation of the world ( 422 BC ) the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed and burned the First Temple, built by Solomon in the 9th century BC.
• Ninth Ava 3828 from the creation of the world ( 68 AD ) Roman military leader ( later emperor ) Titus Vespasian destroyed the Second Temple, built in the 4th century BC.
• Ninth Ava ( presumably in 135 AD ) the last stronghold of Jewish rebels fell, and the leader of the Shimon Bar-Kohba uprising ( Bar-Kuziva ) was killed. According to the Roman historian Dion Cassia, 580 thousand Jews died in the battles of that war, 50 fortified cities and 985 settlements were destroyed; almost all of Judea turned into a scorched desert.
• Ninth Ava, a few years after the defeat of Bar-Kohba ( no more accurate information ), Roman ruler Turnus Rufus plowed the territory of the Temple and its environs. What was said by the prophet was fulfilled: « Because of you, Zion will be swollen like a field, and Jerusalem will become ruins, and Temple Mount — a wooded hill » ( Miha, 3:12 ). The invaders forbade the Jews from living in Jerusalem. Anyone who violates the ban was facing the death penalty. Jerusalem became a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina.
• In 1095, Pope Urban II announced the start of the first crusade, as a result of which « the warriors of Jesus » killed tens of thousands of Jews and destroyed many Jewish communities.
• Ninth Ava in 1146, during the second crusade, pogroms were organized in the Jewish communities of Germany and France.
• The ninth ava in 1290 began the expulsion of Jews from England.
• The day after the ninth ava in 1306, a decree was issued to expel Jews from France, and they had to leave all their property.
• In 1348, the ninth ava of European Jews was accused of organizing one of the largest plague epidemics in history ( « Black Death » ). This accusation led to a brutal wave of pogroms and killings.
• In 1492, the King of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castille issued a decree on the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
• Ninth Ava in 1555 — Jews of Rome were resettled in the first ghetto in history.
• In 1567, the remaining Jews of Italy were resettled in the ghetto.
• The ninth ava in 1648, the massacre of tens, or even hundreds of thousands of Jews in Poland, Ukraine and Bessarabia, arranged by Khmelnitsky and his associates.
• In 1882, pogroms of Jewish communities began in Russia within the neighborhood of sedentaryism.
• The Ninth Wawa in 1914 began World War I.
• In 1942, the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto began.
• In 1942, the death camp in Treblinka began operating.
Nevertheless, Jews believe that someday this day will be the biggest holiday of — when all Jews repent of their sins, then it is on this day that the Messiah will be born.