Tisha B’Av means “Ninth of Av.”

Tisha B’Av is Hebrew for the Ninth of Av, meaning the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av. Though not a biblically mandated commemoration, many Messianic Jews join other Jewish people the world over in this special day of mourning.

• On the ninth day of Av in 586 BC, the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

• The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD, also on the ninth of Av.

• On the ninth day of Av in 133 AD, Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar.

• One year after their conquest of Betar, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount, our nation’s holiest site.

• The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 AD.

• On the 9th of Av 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain.

• On the 9th of Av 1914 -The First World War began. The insubstantial peace that concluded this war was a direct cause of the Second World War in which the six million perished.

• The 9th of Av 1942 – The first killings started at Treblinka: “The first transport of ‘deportees’ left Malkinia on July 23, 1942, in the morning hours. It was loaded with Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. The train was made up of sixty closed cars, crowded with people. The car doors were locked from the outside, and the air apertures barred with barbed wire.”

On the ninth day of Av in 586 BC, the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD, also on the ninth of Av. Astonishingly, along with these two tragic events, many other catastrophes and persecutions have occurred in Jewish history on this very same date. Tisha B’Av is mentioned as “the fast of the fifth month” in Zechariah 7:3,5 and 8:19.

Today, Tisha B’Av is a day of fasting and mourning for Jewish people throughout the world. Messianic Jews grieve as well for the terrible events, often adding their cry that other Jewish people the world over could come to know the assurance of the apostle Paul that we who believe in Messiah Yeshua are “the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16).