bs"d Tisha B'Av - The Ninth day of the Jewish month of Av A day of mourning for the Jewish people. Many tragedies befell us and the world on this day. The tragedies began when the the spies - in the generation of the desert - brought us back a negative report after spying out the land of Israel. The Jews started crying and wanted to return to Egypt. Hashem said to them. "Today you are weeping for nothing but the day will come that on this night you will weep for a purpose, for on this night both first and second temples will be destroyed." (See Bamidbar / Numbers 14:1) On the Ninth of Av, we fast and read kinot - lamentations at the synagogue. It is a day of introspection for us to look into our misdeeds and to try to improve ourselves. It is a period when we try to do Tshuva. We return to the the pleasant ways of our Torah. Since, the mourning of Tisha B'Av was caused by Lashon HaRah (Speaking badly about others - in this case the spies spoke badly about Israel), it is appropriate that we try to refrain from speaking Lashon HaRah. This can serve as a reparation for our doings in the desert. There were five trajedies, that befell the Jewish People on Tisha B'Av. - On this day the decree was made that the Jews in the desert would not enter into the land of Israel. - In 586 B.C.E. the First Beit Hamikdash (Temple) was destroyed. - In 70 C.E. the Second Beit Hamikdash (Temple) was destroyed. - 135 C.E. the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans ended with the fall of the fortress / city Betar - and Tens of thousands were killed by our enemies. - The evil Tornosropos raized the holy ark. More contemporary tragedies: On Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av) - 1290 C.E. the official decree expelling Jews from England was signed (July 18) - 1492 C.E. the Jews were forced to leave Spain (August 2) - 1555 Jews of Italy were forced into a ghetto in a district near the Tiber (July 26) - 1914 Germany declares war on Russia (August 1) - 1941 orders to carry out the final solution went into effect (July 31) The three week period is generally a difficult period. As this week, we unfortunately saw the we lost many people to the TWA Flight 800 Airline crash. It occured at the beginning of the Jewish month of Av. Ending on a positive note - When the mashiach will arrive, BS"D, Tisha B'Av will become our greatest period of rejoicing. May the we be Zocheh (meritorious) to welcome the arrival of the Mashiach inour days. Amen! All The best. Kol Tuv! --- from: The Jewish Education Network at: http://www.aquanet.co.il/vip/mc e-mail: jenet@iname.com date: 17 Tamuz 5758 / July 12, 1998 ver: 1.1 The Jewish Education Network - A Jewish Education Counts, Matatia Chetrit, Copyright (1998) Please feel free to copy this document. We only ask that you keep it intact and leave this message on it. Thanks. www.aquanet.co.il/vip/mc/index.html