Today Marks Ninth of Av Fast Day

[muman613]

Shalom,

Today is Tish B'Av, the day of great mourning for the Jewish people. Many great calamities befell our people on this day. It is most famously the day that both the first and second Temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians, the second by the Romans. Many terrible things happened on this day. It was the day which Moshe smashed the 1st set of tablets which Hashem gave at Mount Sinai. It is the day that the people wept because of the evil report.

This day was established as a day of Mourning for the Jewish nation. It is a day of fasting and affliction like Yom Kippur as we cannot wear leather shoes.

As the article @ ArutzSheva news in Israel reports:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127128

(IsraelNN.com) Jews around the world are joining those in Israel Sunday to mark the Ninth of the Hebrew month of Av fast day, the day of mourning for the fall of the First and Second Temples. Jerusalem police have closed all entrances to the Old City to vehicular traffic in anticipation of a large number of worshippers to the Western Wall (Kotel).

The prayer area of the holy site was filled with visitors after the end of the Sabbath, when the fast day already had begun at sundown. It ends Sunday night at approximately 8 p.m., depending on one's location.

The Bible records the Ninth of Av as the date of the destruction of the First Temple. Tradition teaches that the date is so heavily marked by tragedy, that the destruction of the Second Temple fell on the same date. Different opinions cite the year as between 68 and 70 in the Common Era (CE).

On the Ninth of Av, Betar, the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt, fell in 132 CE and over 100,000 Jews were killed. In 1492, Spain ordered the expulsion of all Jews by the Ninth of Av. In 1914, Germany declared war on Russia on the Ninth of Av (August 1) opening World War I.

Although the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple, Jewish tradition teaches that the underlying reason for the destruction was the practice of Jews speaking ill of each other (loshon hara) and spreading "senseless hatred" (sinat chinam).

I hope we learn from this day not to speak ill of our fellow. Because it was through this Lashon Hara and Senseless Hatred which caused the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash.

Thank you,
muman613