By some random coincidence, today happens to be the 9th of Av, a day of intense mourning among the Jewish people for a lengthy catalog of bad days. It seems highly unusual that this day would possess such a dark history, but to the Jews it does. For those of us who use solar calendars as opposed to the lunar-solar Hebrew calendar, the darkness of this day might be more difficult to understand, since events that occur on the 9th of Av have different solar days from year to year. With that said, let us examine what makes this day a day of mourning, and ponder the boundary between history and tradition that leads all sorts of evils to be ascribed to this day even perhaps beyond what is warranted by the historical record.

The best-known connection between the 9th of Av and Israeli disaster (also known as Tisha b’Av) is that Solomon’s temple and Herod’s temple were both destroyed on this day about 650 years apart. After long sieges, the Babylonians and Romans both laid waste to physical buildings with corrupt priesthoods and a rebellious and disobedient people, leading to great trauma for the people of Judah. Let us ponder the shared circumstances of those destructions of Jerusalem and the temple as a way of seeking to discover the deeper meaning of this dark day. There is no question that the destruction of those two temples was traumatic and brutal, but also no question that the religion of the Jews had departed dramatically from the way of God, and had led the Jews to rebel against the judgment that they had been put under, with serious consequences. Interestingly enough, the crushing battle that led to the defeat of the Bar Kobha revolt also happened on the 9th of Av, showing the defeat of a second rebellion against Roman rule as well as one that involved the idolatry of a mere man claiming to be the Son of God in opposition to the true Son of God.

Even in the period after the Jews lost any sort of autonomy in their homeland, the 9th of Av has twice proven to be a time of great suffering and sorrow for their people. For example, in 1290, the Jews were expelled from England on the 9th of Av, as was the date in 1492 when the Jews were no longer welcome in a recently united Spain successful at last in its Reconquista efforts [1]. Also, strikingly, Germany declared war on Russia in World War I on the 9th of Av in 1914, a war of intense suffering that set into motion a long chain of events that led to the attempt of Hitler to exterminate the Jews from Europe (among other peoples and groups). Here again in history, we find the dispersal or judgment on the Jews to take place on this inauspicious day.

In tradition there are still other inauspicious deeds that are ascribed to this particular day. For example, according to Jewish tradition, the night that the people of Israel rebelled against the command of God in unbelief, refusing to enter the Holy Land, was at the beginning of the 9th of Av, leading to a judgement of 40 years in the wilderness and the death of all of those cowardly and faithless rebels above the age of 20 who did not trust in God’s power but instead cowered before the supposed giants of the Anakim in the promised land, a people whose appointed time for judgment had come.

So far, let us note that the events of the 9th of Av have a great deal to do with a related series of concerns. We have the scattering of Israel and Judah, a period of wandering in the wilderness away from the promised land, and a time of judgment for unbelief and rebellion against the decree of our Heavenly Father. Small wonder that this historical litany of failures and frustrations and disasters on this day has led to this being a traditional fast despite not being commanded as a fast by the Eternal. For this fast, as informal as it is, is even mentioned in scripture, and in a context that shows that the mourning and ill fortune of this day will be eventually turned into gladness and joy.

Zechariah 8:18-23 reads: “Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh [not the Day of Atonement] and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will also go.” So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts at Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ‘ ”

Here we see that after the return of Jesus Christ, when mankind has been brought under the rule of God directly, that the times of fasting and mourning (including that for the 9th of Av) will become times where the people of Israel (particularly the Jews) feel joy and gladness, and where instead of the people of Judah and Israel being scattered, that the peoples of the world will come together to seek God’s favor (rather than rebel against God or persecute His people) at Jerusalem, presumably with a restored temple of God there. The judgment that this day symbolizes will be turned into favor and grace, the scattering into joining together, the rebellion into worship and obedience, and the mourning and sorrow into joy and cheerful feasting. May that day speedily come.

[1] http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/946703/jewish/What-happened-on-the-Ninth-of-Av.htm