Two Terrible Events On Same Date: The Ninth of AV-or-Tishah b'Av: Count Down 4 Days From Today

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

                         Destruction of the 1st Temple  of Solomon                                                                           
 The destruction of Solomon's 1st Temple happened on the 9th of Av 586 BCE  by Nebuchadnezzer, King of Babylonia.  The 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Romans on the 9th of Av 70 CE.   These are the saddest days in our history.  We have never forgotten, and mark the events with fasting and mourning.  One had been built over the other. 

                                                   

          656 Years Later,  the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE

Our people remember by noting and learning about it 3 weeks before the event, starting now.  It's a time of passing up enjoyable things to do, as if you parents had just died.  There is a 25 hour fast involved with not even a sip of water.  It is the eeriest of events in that such a destruction happened on the same dates. We remember this day and grieve for it on the 9th of of the month of Av, which falls on July 18th, a Sunday of 2021.  

Bar Kokhba fighting the Romans for 3 years while holding Jerusalem

Even more than coincidence are the facts that the 9th of Av is also traditionally the anniversary of the fall of Betar in 135 CE which is when General Bar KOKHBA fell after fighting for 3 years for Jerusalem with the Romans, the fiercest soldiers in the world at the time.  Another event on this date was the expulsion from Spain of all the Jews in 1492, and other national calamities.           

        The 12 spies tell their people what they saw in Canaan

It also involves or coincides with remembering the spies during the time of the Exodus and how they brought back reports of gloom and doom, saying it was impossible to enter Canaan;  in that the people were so tall.  One spy gave a hopeful outlook, giving Moses and Joshua the hope they were hoping for.  

Betar was a city of the tribe of Judah, located 5 miles WSW of Jerusalem.  It's  listed in the Septuagint (The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint, is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, various biblical apocrypha, and deuterocanonical books. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd century BCE)., the stronghold of Aluf Bar Kokhba in 134-135 CE.  Evidence of 2 large Hadrianic Roman marching camps has been detected.  The Talmud mentions it's capture by the Romans.  

                                             

    Night in Jerusalem at the Temple Wall (Wailing Wall).  

This is a lesson for us and learn to be tolerant of one another.  The other lesson is to have the love for Israel and what it stands for.  That may be looked upon as developing Nationalism a no-no word for many, but the love of Israel combines the awe of of G-d who led us there; our religion and all its ramifications, the meaning to our life, the love of life.  and the respect got life.  Israel to us is very special piece of land.  To leave it is to become a Yored, to go down spiritually.  To make Aliyah is to rise, to go up spiritually.  Our TOAST is L'Chaim !  To Life!  

                                                 

       In front of our government building the Menorah...one of the most prominent features of the Tabernacle and Temples.  The menorah was from the 2nd Temple to Rome, documented on the Arch of Titus in Rome.  it is the symbol of Judaism and is frequently portrayed on tombs and monuments of every description.  
 

This is no ordinary piece of land.  It holds the bones of our ancestors. G-d led us here.   Mohammad believed it important enough to mount his flying half mule, half donkey, Buraq, and fly from Mecca to Jerusalem and back again in a single night.  The kings of Europe formed a Crusade and arrived here to take the land from the Jews and Arabs, causing both to work together in defense.  It's been the hub of people scrambling to own a piece of it, the navel of the Earth. 

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

My own experience