Tisha B'Av

The saddest day of the year is the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av in Hebrew). It is the date on which both Temples were destroyed and the exile, persecution, and spiritual darkness began.

This is a day of fasting that begins at nightfall the day before. When the 9th of Av falls on Shabbat, the fast is postponed until Sunday. Here are some things that cannot be done, which apply from the beginning of the 9th of Av until the end of the fast:

- No eating or drinking. Every person over the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, must fast.
- Bathing and washing. Exceptions: dirty hands, when leaving the bathroom, the morning ritual washing (only the fingers).
- Apply lotions and creams. For medicinal reasons, applying a cream is permitted.
- Wearing leather shoes or shoes that are partly made of leather.
- To have marital relations.
- Study Torah. Only the destruction of the Temple or "sad" matters, such as the laws of mourning, are studied.

People are not greeted, not even with a "Good morning." It's not a day for going out, and if possible, it's best not to go to work. Until midday, people don't sit in normal chairs, but on a cushion on the floor or a low stool.

Tefillin and Tallit are not put on during the morning prayer, but rather in the afternoon, before the Mincha prayer.

These are some of the events that occurred on this day:

The generation of the Exodus was condemned to die in the desert (1312 BCE). As recounted in Deuteronomy 14, when the spies Moses sent to the Land of Canaan returned with a negative report, the people wept throughout the night of the beginning of the 9th of Av, proclaiming that they preferred to return to Egypt rather than attempt to conquer and settle in the Land of Canaan. God then decreed that this entire generation would wander in the desert for 40 years until the last of them died, and their children, under the leadership of Joshua, would enter the Promised Land and inherit it.

Both Temples are destroyed. Both the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem were destroyed on the 9th of Av: the First Temple by the Babylonians in 423 BCE and the Second by the Romans in 69 CE.
This destruction marks the descent into exile of the Jewish people that lasts to this day.
However, this is also a day of hope, since the Talmud says that Messiah was born at that very moment of destruction.

The fall of Betar: Betar, the last stronghold of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, fell to the Romans on the 9th of Av in 133 CE, after a three-year siege. 580,000 Jews died of starvation or were massacred, including Bar Kokhba, the leader of the rebellion.

Expulsion of the Jews from England by King Edward I in 1290.

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled them in 1492, ending centuries of active and flourishing Jewish life in that country.

AMIA bombing: Arab terrorists detonate a bomb at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, killing 86 people and injuring 120, in the most brutal attack against Jews in the diaspora since the Holocaust.