Tisha B'Av

Common card · No. 215712

Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב, romanized: Tišʿā bəʾĀḇ, lit. 'Ninth of Av') is an annual ta'anit (fast day) in Rabbinic Judaism. (Karaite Judaism fasts on the 7th and 10th of Av.) The day commemorates a number of disasters in Jewish history, above all the destruction of both of the great temples in Jerusalem: Solomon's Temple, destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (in 587 BCE), and the Second Temple, destroyed by the Roman Empire (in 70 CE). The Three Weeks, a period of Jewish communal sorrow, begins on the Seventeenth of Tammuz and ends on Tisha B'Av, a day regarded as "the saddest day in the Jewish calendar", mourning the loss of the two temples. It is categorized as a day destined for tragedy. Tisha b'Av falls in July or August in the Gregorian calendar. Observances of the day include five prohibitions, most notable of which is a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem, is read in synagogue, followed by the recitation of kinnot, liturgical...

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