Tisha B’Av: Remembering Destruction, Returning to Torah, and Learning to Mourn

Tisha B’Av—the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av—is the great day of national mourning in the Jewish calendar. It recalls the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, the loss of Jewish sovereignty, the scattering of Israel, and the long history of persecution, expulsion, and displacement that followed.

For someone who was not raised with traditional Jewish observance, Tisha B’Av may initially feel unfamiliar. Pesach has a Seder. Rosh Hashanah has the shofar. Yom Kippur is widely recognized as the Day of Atonement. Chanukah has lights, and Purim has celebration. Tisha B’Av asks us to do something more difficult: to sit with grief, to remember a world we never personally knew, and to recognize that Jewish history includes not only survival and victory but also destruction, exile, and loss.

Yet Tisha B’Av is not meant to leave us in despair. It teaches us how to remember honestly, mourn communally, examine ourselves, and begin again. It is a day of fasting and lamentation, but also of teshuvah—return. We remember what was destroyed so that we may consider what must be rebuilt.

This makes the day especially meaningful for Jews who are returning to their heritage, converts who have recently joined the Jewish people, and those who are only beginning to explore traditional observance. A person does not need to possess years of Jewish education before they are entitled to mourn with Israel. Nor does a Jew need to reach a particular level of observance before beginning to participate in Jewish memory. Derekh HaTorah holds firmly to traditional Torah practice while welcoming every Jew with patience, dignity, and respect.

What Tisha B’Av Is

The name Tisha B’Av simply means “the ninth of Av.” Unlike the pilgrimage festivals commanded directly in the Written Torah, Tisha B’Av belongs to the cycle of communal fasts established in response to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The prophet Zechariah refers to fasts associated with the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months. The fast of the fifth month became identified with Tisha B’Av. The Rambam explains that these fasts exist to awaken the heart and open the way to repentance. They remind us of the destructive conduct of earlier generations so that we may recognize similar failures in ourselves and change our ways. (Sefaria)

This is essential to understanding the day. Tisha B’Av is not simply an annual recitation of what foreign nations did to the Jewish people. Babylonians, Romans, Crusaders, inquisitors, kings, governments, and modern antisemitic movements committed real crimes against Jews. Remembering those crimes is necessary. But a Jewish fast also asks us to look inward.

Have we become more faithful to the covenant? Do we treat one another with dignity? Do we humiliate other Jews over politics, observance, ancestry, conversion, class, or culture? Do religious institutions serve people or merely protect themselves? Do we use Torah to become more compassionate and disciplined, or to declare ourselves superior?

Tisha B’Av turns history into moral responsibility.

The Five Foundational Calamities

The Mishnah identifies five calamities that occurred on the ninth of Av.

The first was the decree against the generation of the wilderness after the people accepted the fearful report of the spies and refused to enter the Land of Israel. The second was the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians. The third was the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. The fourth was the fall of Betar, the final great stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt. The fifth was the plowing over of Jerusalem and the Temple area as an expression of Roman domination. (Sefaria)

These five events form the traditional foundation of Tisha B’Av, but the day eventually became much larger than the anniversary of one ancient catastrophe. It became the principal day on which the Jewish people gathered the sorrows of many generations.

The Sin of the Spies

The earliest calamity associated with Tisha B’Av is the rebellion following the report of the spies in the Book of Numbers. Twelve men were sent to investigate the Land of Canaan. Ten returned with a report that emphasized danger, powerful inhabitants, and fortified cities. Although Joshua and Caleb urged the people to trust God and continue forward, the people surrendered to fear.

According to Jewish tradition, the night on which Israel wept and rejected the Land was the ninth of Av. The generation that had left Egypt was therefore condemned to remain in the wilderness rather than enter the Land.

This tragedy establishes a theme that runs throughout Tisha B’Av. Destruction does not begin only when enemy soldiers breach a wall. It begins when fear overcomes faith, when a people loses confidence in its purpose, and when the covenant is treated as an unbearable burden rather than a sacred calling.

The Destruction of the First Temple

The First Temple, built by King Solomon, stood at the center of Israel’s national and religious life. It was the appointed place of sacrifice, pilgrimage, priestly service, prayer, and the unique dwelling of the Divine Presence among the people.

The prophets repeatedly warned that the Temple could not protect a nation that abandoned the covenant. Sacrifice could not substitute for justice. Religious ceremony could not excuse violence, idolatry, corruption, exploitation, or the mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable.

In the sixth century BCE, the Babylonian armies conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, ended the Davidic kingdom, and carried much of the population of Judah into exile. The Book of Eicha, or Lamentations, gives poetic voice to the devastation. Jerusalem is portrayed as a bereaved woman sitting alone, emptied of her children and deprived of comfort.

When Eicha is read on Tisha B’Av, we are not simply reading an ancient description of military defeat. We are entering the emotional world of people who had lost their land, national institutions, security, sanctuary, and sense of permanence.

The Destruction of the Second Temple

The Second Temple was built after the return from Babylonian exile and stood for centuries. During the Roman period it remained the center of Jewish national worship and pilgrimage.

In the first century CE, conflict with Rome, political fragmentation, violent factionalism, rebellion, and internal hatred brought catastrophe upon Judea. Jerusalem was besieged, its people endured hunger and bloodshed, and the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.

Rabbinic tradition famously connects the destruction of the Second Temple with sinat chinam, commonly translated as baseless hatred. This does not mean that every disagreement is sinful or that Jews must pretend to agree about everything. Jewish life has always contained argument. The danger arises when disagreement becomes contempt, humiliation, dehumanization, or violence.

Jerusalem’s factions fought one another even while a powerful enemy surrounded the city. Tisha B’Av therefore warns us that a community may be outwardly religious and still destroy itself through arrogance, hatred, and the refusal to recognize the dignity of others.

Betar and the Failure of Revolt

Several generations after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Bar Kokhba revolt raised hopes that Roman rule might be overthrown and Jewish sovereignty restored. Betar became the final major stronghold of the rebellion.

Its fall brought enormous loss of life and ended the revolt. Roman authorities later plowed over the site of Jerusalem, further demonstrating their intention to erase Jewish political and religious claims to the city.

These events added another layer to Tisha B’Av. The day came to mourn not only the destruction of the Temple but also failed restoration, crushed resistance, and the apparent triumph of exile.

A Day That Gathered the Sorrows of Jewish History

As the centuries passed, Tisha B’Av became the day on which later tragedies were gathered into the larger story of exile. Not every catastrophe occurred precisely on the ninth of Av. Some took place during the surrounding weeks, while others were added to the day because they represented another chapter in the continuing destruction of Jewish communities.

The kinot—poetic lamentations recited on Tisha B’Av—came to remember the massacres of Jewish communities during the Crusades, the destruction of the Rhineland communities in 1096, the slaughter of the Jews of York, the burning of the Talmud in Paris, the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition, and eventually the Holocaust. (My Jewish Learning)

These events did not replace the destruction of the Temple as the center of the day. Rather, they were understood as extensions of the condition created by the loss of Jerusalem: a scattered people living at the mercy of rulers who could withdraw protection, seize property, compel conversion, or order entire communities into exile.

The Expulsion from England

In 1290, King Edward I issued an edict ordering the Jews to leave England. The decree was issued on July 18, a date traditionally identified with Tisha B’Av that year. Jews were given until November 1 to depart. Their houses, lands, debts, and much of their property were taken by the Crown. Approximately three thousand Jews were forced to leave, and Jews would not again possess a recognized right of residence in England for more than three centuries. (The National Archives)

The expulsion of English Jewry became one of the most frequently cited later tragedies associated with Tisha B’Av. It demonstrated that a Jewish community could live in a country for generations and still be declared unwanted through a single royal order.

The Expulsions from France

French kings expelled Jews on several occasions. In 1182, Jews were driven from the royal domain under Philip Augustus. They were later permitted to return, only to face another sweeping expulsion under Philip IV in 1306. On July 22 of that year, Jews were arrested, their property was seized, and they were forced from the kingdom. Some were later recalled, but another general expulsion followed in 1394. (Jewish Encyclopedia)

The French expulsions are often included in the historical memory of Tisha B’Av even where the exact dates do not coincide perfectly with the ninth of Av. Their inclusion reflects what the day became: a national memorial for the repeated uprooting of Jewish life in exile.

The Expulsion from Spain

The expulsion from Spain in 1492 holds a particularly important place in Sephardic memory. The Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula had produced generations of Torah scholars, poets, philosophers, physicians, judges, merchants, and communal leaders. Their civilization was brought to an end through persecution, forced conversion, the Inquisition, and the Alhambra Decree.

The decree was signed on March 31, 1492, and ordered Jews who refused conversion to leave the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon by the end of July. The legal deadline was July 31, traditionally calculated as the seventh of Av, although Rabbi Isaac Abravanel and later Jewish memory associated the final departure of Spanish Jewry with Tisha B’Av itself. (The Library of Congress)

This distinction matters because history should not be bent merely to create a dramatic coincidence. Yet the closeness of the expulsion to Tisha B’Av, and the immense scale of the disaster, naturally joined it to the day. Spanish Jews were forced to sell property quickly, abandon homes and synagogues, leave the graves of their ancestors, accept baptism, or depart for an uncertain future.

Many found new homes in North Africa, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, the Netherlands, and the Land of Israel. They carried with them their Torah traditions, liturgy, melodies, family customs, and Judeo-Spanish language. Tisha B’Av therefore remembers not only that Sepharad was lost, but also that Sephardic Judaism survived.

World War I and the Destruction of European Jewry

World War I is also commonly associated with Tisha B’Av. The war had already begun when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, but Germany’s declaration of war against Russia on August 1 occurred on the ninth of Av. That step transformed a regional crisis into a much wider European war. (Aish.com)

The First World War displaced Jewish populations, destroyed communities, intensified political extremism, and helped create the conditions from which Nazism and the Second World War later emerged. The relationship is not simple or inevitable, but in Jewish memory the wars form part of the same catastrophic transformation of European life.

The Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto Deportations

Tisha B’Av has also become a day for remembering the Holocaust. Some communities recite modern kinot written for the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Others include Holocaust study, survivor testimony, or the names of destroyed communities in their observance.

The connection became especially vivid in Warsaw. On July 22, 1942—the eve of Tisha B’Av—German authorities began the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka killing center. Between July and September, approximately 265,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to be murdered. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

The Holocaust was not simply another expulsion. It was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews. Yet Tisha B’Av provided an established language through which some Jewish communities could begin to mourn a catastrophe almost beyond language. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

The Three Weeks: Preparing to Mourn

Tisha B’Av does not arrive without preparation. It is preceded by a period known as the Three Weeks or Bein HaMetzarim, “between the straits.” The period begins with the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz and ends with Tisha B’Av.

The Seventeenth of Tammuz commemorates the breaching of Jerusalem’s defenses and other calamities. Unlike Tisha B’Av, it is a daylight fast beginning at dawn and ending after nightfall.

During the Three Weeks, Jewish communities gradually reduce celebration. Weddings, dancing, festive music, haircuts, shaving, new clothing, and the blessing of Shehecheyanu may be limited according to communal custom.

There is no single universal timetable for all these restrictions. In many Ashkenazi communities, weddings and haircuts are avoided throughout the entire Three Weeks. Many Sephardic communities permit weddings and haircuts during the first portion of the period and begin these restrictions at Rosh Chodesh Av or during the week in which Tisha B’Av occurs. The Shulchan Aruch itself records different customs regarding when restrictions on bathing and other activities begin. (Sefaria)

Some Sephardic and Kabbalistically influenced communities also recite portions of Tikkun Chatzot, especially prayers mourning Jerusalem, during the afternoons of the Three Weeks.

The existence of different customs should not confuse or divide us. Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, Yemenite, Italian, and other Jewish communities developed distinct ways of expressing the same national grief. A person with an established family or communal custom should preserve it. Someone new to observance may follow the practice of the synagogue or rabbi from whom they are learning.

Rosh Chodesh Av and the Nine Days

The mourning intensifies with the beginning of Av. The Mishnah teaches, “When Av enters, we decrease joy.”

The period from Rosh Chodesh Av through Tisha B’Av is commonly called the Nine Days. In many Ashkenazi communities, meat and wine are avoided from Rosh Chodesh, except on Shabbat or at certain mitzvah meals. Freshly laundered clothing, recreational bathing and swimming, luxury construction, and festive gatherings are also limited.

Many Sephardic communities begin avoiding meat and wine after Rosh Chodesh rather than on Rosh Chodesh itself. Restrictions involving laundry, freshly laundered outer clothing, haircuts, shaving, and bathing for pleasure are often concentrated in shavua shechal bo—the week in which Tisha B’Av occurs. (Orthodox Union)

Shabbat remains Shabbat. Public mourning is suspended. We wear appropriate Shabbat clothing, eat dignified meals, drink wine for Kiddush, and honor the day. Tisha B’Av mourning should never be used to diminish the holiness of Shabbat.

The Shabbat before Tisha B’Av is called Shabbat Chazon, after the opening word of the haftarah from Isaiah. The prophet condemns a society that maintains religious ceremony while tolerating bloodshed, oppression, and injustice. This reading prepares us to understand that the destruction of Jerusalem was not caused by a lack of religious activity. It was caused by the separation of worship from righteousness.

Preparing for Tisha B’Av

A person observing Tisha B’Av for the first time should prepare before the fast rather than attempting to understand everything after it has begun.

First, check a reliable Jewish calendar for the local beginning and ending times. Tisha B’Av begins at sunset and ends after nightfall the following day. When the ninth of Av falls on Shabbat, the public fast is postponed until Saturday night and Sunday, and some of the rules involving Havdalah and the transition from Shabbat require special attention.

Prepare non-leather shoes, an Eicha text or Tisha B’Av prayer book, and any medications or medical instructions needed. Decide in advance how much work can be postponed and how entertainment, television, social media, and ordinary recreational activity will be limited.

Anyone with diabetes, heart or kidney disease, a history of fainting or dehydration, an eating disorder, pregnancy complications, recent surgery, serious mental illness, or another significant medical condition should seek medical and halakhic advice before fasting. Medication should not be discontinued merely to complete the fast. Jewish law does not require a person to create a medical emergency. (Chabad)

The Final Meal

Before the fast begins, many people eat a normal meal earlier in the afternoon. Closer to sunset, a final meal called the seudah hamafseket is eaten.

When the eve of Tisha B’Av falls on an ordinary weekday, this final meal is deliberately simple. Traditional halakhah limits it to one cooked dish and excludes meat and wine. (Sefaria)

A hard-boiled egg with bread is common in many Ashkenazi and Sephardic homes. Some dip the bread or egg in ashes. Lentils are used in some Sephardic and Mizrahi communities because their round shape is associated with the cycle of mourning. Family customs vary, but the meal is not intended to become an elaborate “pre-fast feast.”

When the eve of Tisha B’Av falls on Shabbat, these visible mourning practices are not observed at the final Shabbat meal. Shabbat is honored normally, although eating must stop before sunset.

The Basic Restrictions of Tisha B’Av

Tisha B’Av is a full fast. The five principal restrictions are:

Eating and drinking; washing the body for pleasure; applying oils, lotions, or cosmetics for pleasure; wearing leather footwear; and marital relations. (Sefaria)

Necessary washing is permitted. Dirt may be removed. Hands may be washed as required for hygiene, and medical creams or ointments may be used when needed for treatment rather than pleasure. Non-leather sneakers, sandals, slippers, or other footwear may be worn.

Ordinary greetings, recreational outings, entertainment, unnecessary work, and casual socializing are also reduced. Torah study is generally limited because Torah brings joy. Appropriate subjects include Eicha, Job, passages of Jeremiah concerning destruction, the laws of mourning and fasting, accounts of the Temple’s destruction, and ethical teachings that lead to repentance. (Sefaria)

Until halakhic midday, people traditionally sit on the floor or on a low chair or cushion, as mourners do. After midday, ordinary chairs may generally be used, although the fast and its other restrictions continue until nightfall.

Tisha B’Av Evening at Home or in Synagogue

The evening service is usually conducted in a darkened or dimly lit synagogue. The parochet may be removed from the Ark, worshippers sit low, and Megillat Eicha is chanted in a mournful melody.

Customs differ. Some communities read Eicha from a parchment scroll and recite a blessing. Many Sephardic communities read it without a blessing. Moroccan, Syrian, Iraqi, Turkish, Greek, Yemenite, Italian, Spanish-Portuguese, and Ashkenazi communities preserve distinct melodies and selections of kinot.

A person observing at home can still participate meaningfully. Pray the weekday evening service according to the siddur you normally use, omitting portions that require a minyan. Then read Eicha slowly. It is not necessary to chant it perfectly. Understanding the words is more important than imitating an unfamiliar melody.

After Eicha, read one or more kinot if available. You may also read Psalm 137, selections from Jeremiah, an account of the destruction of the Temples, or a history of a Jewish community destroyed through persecution or exile.

The evening should remain quiet. This is not the night for television, games, recreational internet use, or ordinary entertainment. The goal is not to create theatrical sadness, but to make room for memory.

The Morning of Tisha B’Av

The morning service contains additional changes and kinot. In many communities, the tallit and tefillin are not worn during Shacharit but are put on at Mincha. Some Sephardic communities, especially those preserving certain Jerusalem customs, wear tallit and tefillin in the morning as usual.

Neither practice should be presented as the only authentic Jewish observance. Someone with an established custom should follow it. A person without one should follow the siddur and community through which they are learning or ask a rabbi before the fast.

When praying alone, do not recite Kaddish, Barechu, the repetition of the Amidah, or the public Torah reading. These require a minyan. You may still pray the individual portions of Shacharit, read Eicha, study permitted subjects, and recite personal prayers.

The prayer Nachem, asking God to comfort Jerusalem, and Aneinu, the special prayer for a fast day, are added according to the instructions of the siddur and the custom of the community. Some rites recite Nachem only at Mincha, while others include it more widely.

A Simple Home Observance for a First Tisha B’Av

Someone observing alone does not need to recreate an entire synagogue service. A simple and serious observance may follow this pattern.

Before sunset, eat the final meal, put away leather shoes, turn off unnecessary entertainment, and prepare a quiet place to pray and read.

After sunset, begin the fast. Pray Maariv if you are able, then read Eicha. Spend additional time reading about the destruction of Jerusalem or one of the later tragedies remembered on the day.

In the morning, pray Shacharit according to your ability and custom. Sit on a low seat until midday. Read from Eicha, Job, Jeremiah, or an appropriate history. Avoid ordinary entertainment and unnecessary shopping or work.

During the afternoon, pray Mincha if possible. Put on tallit and tefillin at the appropriate time if that is your custom. Read a passage of consolation and consider one practical act of repair: giving tzedakah, reconciling with someone, committing to Torah study, supporting a Jewish community, or refusing to participate in humiliating speech about other Jews.

After nightfall, pray Maariv and break the fast gently. Do not treat the end of the fast as the beginning of a party. The Temple continued burning into the tenth of Av, and many communities continue some mourning customs into the following day. Ashkenazi and Sephardic practices differ regarding how long meat, wine, laundry, bathing, and other restrictions are delayed.

When You Cannot Observe Everything

A person new to observance may feel overwhelmed by the number of laws and customs. That feeling should not become an excuse to avoid the day entirely.

The full traditional observance remains the goal, but growth often begins gradually. A Jew who has never observed Tisha B’Av might begin by marking the evening, reading Eicha, wearing non-leather shoes, avoiding entertainment, and fasting for as much of the day as health and responsible guidance permit.

Someone who must eat for medical reasons is not excluded from the day. Eat what is required for health, avoid unnecessary delicacies, and continue observing the other aspects of mourning as appropriate. (Chabad)

Someone unable to attend a synagogue can pray and study at home. Someone who does not know Hebrew may read Eicha and the prayers in English. Someone unfamiliar with kinot may begin with one or two that they can understand.

Do not allow uncertainty about a minor custom to prevent participation in the central meaning of the day.

What Are We Mourning Today?

The return of millions of Jews to the Land of Israel and the establishment of the modern State of Israel naturally changed the Jewish experience of exile. Jerusalem is once again the capital of a Jewish state. Jews can live, study, pray, build institutions, and defend themselves in their ancestral land.

These are extraordinary developments that deserve gratitude. Yet complete redemption has not arrived. The Temple service has not been restored. Many Torah commandments connected with the Temple and national institutions cannot be practiced. The Jewish people remain divided, war and antisemitism continue, and much of Jewish life remains spiritually disconnected from Torah.

Tisha B’Av therefore remains relevant. It asks us to recognize that physical rebuilding, although essential, is not enough. A Jewish society can possess buildings, armies, schools, synagogues, and political institutions while still suffering from hatred, corruption, humiliation, neglect, and injustice.

We must rebuild the people as well as the city.

From Mourning to Consolation

Tisha B’Av is the lowest point of the Jewish calendar, but Jewish mourning is never nihilistic. We mourn because we believe that destruction is not the final condition of Israel or the world.

The prophet Zechariah promises that the fasts associated with the destruction will one day become occasions of joy and celebration. Yet the prophecy concludes with a moral demand: “Love truth and peace.” Redemption is therefore not merely the reconstruction of walls. It requires the reconstruction of Jewish character and communal life.

The Shabbat following Tisha B’Av is called Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Comfort, from the words of Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort My people.” The calendar does not leave us sitting permanently on the floor. We rise. We put on our shoes. We eat. We return to Torah, prayer, family, and community.

But we should not return unchanged.

We fast because the world is not yet as it should be. We read Eicha because suffering must be given a voice. We recite kinot because destroyed communities must not be forgotten. We remember Jerusalem, England, France, Spain, the Rhineland, Warsaw, and every place from which Jewish life was uprooted.

We also examine ourselves because memory without repentance becomes empty ceremony.

Tisha B’Av teaches that grief can become responsibility. A people capable of remembering its ruins is also capable of rebuilding. The stones of Jerusalem matter, but so do the character, relationships, institutions, and covenantal faithfulness of the people who long to dwell within her.