What is Tisha B'av - The jewish day of mourning

Every major ancient holiday on the Jewish calendar Even Yom Kippur is ultimately about joy except for one Tisha B'av On this day, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, it said that a series of major tradgies of the Jewish people occurred including the destruction of the first and second Temples It is a day of mourning for getting kicked out of the land of Israel for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Medieval expulsions from various lands It said that Tisha B'av was the day it all went down...literally Sacred sites, entire communities, utterly destroyed leaving a gaping hole on our collective soul when life comes crashing down, we're left devastated We cry, we mourn, we feel isolated All natural responses to loss Tisha B'av is a day of mourning when the Jewish people acknowledge that no, life is not all butterflies and roses and yes this Tribe has been through some serious suffering The time prior to this day is known as the three weeks The period starts with a fast on the 17 of Tammuz when the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE began and intensifies in the last nine days when the walls were breached on the ninth of Av when the ancient Temple fell the whole period is somber and its customary not to hold weddings during this time Traditional Jews stop shaving, cutting their hair and listening to music During the nine days some also refrain from eating meat and drinking alcohol The final day is Tisha B'av, a 24-hour fast In the evening, it common to sit on low stools or the floor at synagogue and hear the Book of Eicha, Lamentations chanted by candle light the book traditionally escribed to Jeremiah brings readers on a graphic journey of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians "Silence sits on the ground, the elders of fair Zion. They have strone dust on their heads and gerted themselves with sack cloth. The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground. My eyes are spent with tears. My heart is in timult. My being melts away over the ruin of my poor people. As babes and sucklings languish in the squares of the city." The melodies of the day are like a durge a time of reflection and as Lamentations concludes "Hashivenu Adonai, turn us to you, holy one and we will return. Renew us as before" Following the reading its customary not to greet each other and to leave in silence honoring the lives lost and the sacred space of interspection When a dark history seems to follow an entire people around it's only natural to ask why or how could this be sometimes these questions are real or sometimes they are more like a lament Why me? Why us? How could this have happened? Eicha translates literally to How as in How could this be? Jewish thinkers struggle to understand these questions for thousands of years Historians see these as historical events where one nation overpowered another but the Rabbis understood them differently in Hebrew Sinat Chinam, baseless or useless hatred was rampeded throughout the land The Rabbinic tradition understand the laws of Jerusalem and the Temple to be the defined consquence of the people's unethical behavior That's way this day is also a time to consider improving our own words and actions in the world Especially how we treat others Tisha B'av comes in the midst of summer and yanks people from the summer time and the living is easy feeling The day invites Jews to turn inward and consider what it means to face national, spiritual and individual darkness and loneliness With a reflective heart the next turn is outward towards the light of life again which renews people's connection to G-d, to each other and to the world The spiritual turns of Tisha B'av prepare the Jewish people for the biggest turn of the year just seven short weeks away when the shofar calls our attention to Rosh Hashanah and the new year.