Context and Customs
And the mishna further taught that the Temple was destroyed for the second time also on the Ninth of Av. The Gemara asks: From where do we derive that the Second Temple was destroyed on this date? It is taught in a baraita: A meritorious matter is brought about on an auspicious day, and a deleterious matter on an inauspicious day, e.g., the Ninth of Av, on which several tragedies had already occurred.
תשעה באב אסור ברחיצה וסיכה ונעילת הסנדל ותשמיש המיטה ואסור לקרות בתורה נביאים וכתובים ולשנות במשנה ובמדרש ובגמ' בהלכות ובאגדות משום שנאמר פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב ותינוקות של בית רבן בטלים בו אבל קורא הוא באיוב ובדברים הרעים שבירמיה ואם יש ביניהם פסוקי נחמה צריך לדלגם:
1. Tisha B'Av is forbidden for washing, anointing, wearing leather shoes, and marital relations. It is also forbidden to read from the Torah, Prophets, and Writings and to learn mishna and midrash and gemara and halacha and aggada, because it says, "The precepts of God are right, gladdening the heart" (Psalms 19:9). Schoolchildren are idle on it. One may read Job and the bad things which are in Jeremiah, but if there are between them passages of consolation, one must skip them.
The Spies Return
(א) וַתִּשָּׂא֙ כָּל־הָ֣עֵדָ֔ה וַֽיִּתְּנ֖וּ אֶת־קוֹלָ֑ם וַיִּבְכּ֥וּ הָעָ֖ם בַּלַּ֥יְלָה הַהֽוּא׃ (ב) וַיִּלֹּ֙נוּ֙ עַל־מֹשֶׁ֣ה וְעַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֔ן כֹּ֖ל בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽיֹּאמְר֨וּ אֲלֵהֶ֜ם כָּל־הָעֵדָ֗ה לוּ־מַ֙תְנוּ֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם א֛וֹ בַּמִּדְבָּ֥ר הַזֶּ֖ה לוּ־מָֽתְנוּ׃ (ג) וְלָמָ֣ה יְ֠הוָה מֵבִ֨יא אֹתָ֜נוּ אֶל־הָאָ֤רֶץ הַזֹּאת֙ לִנְפֹּ֣ל בַּחֶ֔רֶב נָשֵׁ֥ינוּ וְטַפֵּ֖נוּ יִהְי֣וּ לָבַ֑ז הֲל֧וֹא ט֦וֹב לָ֖נוּ שׁ֥וּב מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃ (ד) וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־אָחִ֑יו נִתְּנָ֥ה רֹ֖אשׁ וְנָשׁ֥וּבָה מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃
(1) The whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. (2) All the Israelites railed against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in the land of Egypt,” the whole community shouted at them, “or if only we might die in this wilderness! (3) Why is the LORD taking us to that land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be carried off! It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!” (4) And they said to one another, “Let us head back for Egypt.”
Discussion Questions:
The Talmud (Taanit 29a, Sotah 35a) explains that G-d decided that because "they indulged in weeping without a cause, I will establish this night for them as a time of weeping through the generations"—Tisha B'Av.
1. Were they truly weeping "without a cause"? The spies were a handpicked crew of righteous Jews, and their accurate report demonstrated that the land was saturated with powerful defenses. Granted that G-d had performed miracles for them thus far, how much could they be faulted for giving up hope of conquering the land?
2. Why do you think G-d chose this day as a tragic day through the generations, rather than when the Israelites created the Golden Calf, for example?
Destructions of the First and Second Temples
"And now it was that the king of Babylon sent Nebuzaradan, the general of his army, to Jerusalem, to pillage the temple; who had it also in command to burn it and the royal palace, and to lay the city even with the ground, and to transplant the people into Babylon."
Titus:
"For the seditions they [the Jews] have been in, and the famine they are under, and the siege they now endure, and the fall of their walls without our engines, what can they all be but demonstrations of G-d's anger against them, and his assistance afforded to us?"
"For they [the ancient prophets] foretold that this city should be taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen! . . . It is G-d therefore, it is G-d himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions."
Jerusalem has greatly sinned, therefore she is become a mockery. All who admired her despise her, for they have seen her disgraced; and she can only sigh and shrink back.
Discussion Questions:
1. Can one be a tool of divine retribution, while at the same time be a monster for doing it? (related example: Egyptians)
2. The Talmud continues on to say that the episode of Zechariah's blood expresses the theme of the verse, “I have set her blood upon the bare rock that it should not be covered” (Ezekiel 24:8). This verse is discussing the revenge G-d will take for the massacres of the Jewish people (blood not covered = iniquity not forgotten = looking for vengeance). How does the theme of "punishing the punishers" influence our understanding of retribution?
3. How do we stomach the idea that these tragedies are punishments are for our own sins? That the Romans are simply tools G-d used to punish us?
(יב) כִּ֤י אֶ֥ת אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֶאֱהַ֣ב יְהוָ֣ה יוֹכִ֑יחַ וּ֝כְאָ֗ב אֶת־בֵּ֥ן יִרְצֶֽה׃
(12) For whom the LORD loves, He rebukes, As a father the son whom he favors.
Discussion Question:
1. Does this text change your perception of G-d's punishments of the Jews?
Recent History
"It is already three years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry, who are the crown of world Jewry.
I continue to warn you incessantly that a catastrophe is coming closer.
I became grey and old in these years.
My heart bleeds, that you, dear brothers and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all-consuming lava.
I see that you are not seeing this because you are immersed and sunk in your daily worries.
Today, however, I demand from you trust. You were convinced already that my prognoses have already proven to be right. If you think differently, then drive me out of your midst! However, if you do believe me, then listen to me in this 12th hour:
In the name of God! Let anyone of you save himself as long as there is still time. And time there is very little…"
Discussion Questions:
1. We have discussed the idea of the Romans being tools to punish the Jews. How might we relate this idea to more recent tragedies, like the Holocaust (or expulsion from Spain, or the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center bombing, which also happened during Av)?
Hope
"...and what else I would like to say to you in this day of Tisha B’Av:
Whoever of you will escape from the catastrophe, he or she will live to see the exalted moment of a great Jewish wedding: the rebirth and the rise of a Jewish state. I don’t know if I will be privileged to see it; my son will! I believe in this as I am sure that tomorrow morning the sun will rise."
(31) For the Lord does not reject forever, (32) But first afflicts, then pardons In His abundant kindness.
It is believed that the Moshiach will be born on Tisha B'Av.
Discussion Questions:
1. How do you integrate these more hopeful texts with the previous sources about destruction?
2. How does the possibility of eventual redemption relate to the initial rejection/punishment?