Tisha B'Av — The Ninth of Av

The Mishna (Ta'anit 4:6) lists five calamities that struck the Jewish people on the 9th of Av: the decree that the generation of the desert would not enter the Land of Israel following the sin of the spies; the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE; the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE; the capture and razing of the fortress city of Beitar in 135 CE — the final defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt; and the plowing of Jerusalem by the Roman general Turnus Rufus a year later.

History layered further tragedies onto this date: the First Crusade began in 1096, decimating Rhineland Jewry; England expelled its Jews in 1290; Spain issued the Alhambra Decree in 1492 with a Tisha B'Av deadline; World War I — the prelude to the Shoah — was formally declared on the eve of Tisha B'Av 1914; and mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began on Tisha B'Av 1942.

The rabbis teach that these convergences are not coincidence but a spiritual pattern — the 9th of Av is a channel through which national suffering flows until the arrival of Mashiach, who tradition says will be born on this very day, transforming mourning into rejoicing.

The evening service (Maariv) on Tisha B'Av night is transformed. The synagogue lights are dimmed, the parochet (ark curtain) is removed, and worshipers sit on the floor or on low stools. After the Amidah, the congregation chants Megillat Eicha (the Book of Lamentations), attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, in a haunting mournful trope unique to this day.

The morning service omits tallit and tefillin — traditionally called "adornments" that are inappropriate for the depth of mourning; they are worn instead at Mincha (afternoon service). After Shacharit, the community recites kinot, dozens of liturgical elegies mourning the Temples, the Crusades, the Rhineland martyrs, the expulsions, and in many modern communities, the Holocaust and victims of terror in the Land of Israel.

The Torah reading (Devarim 4:25–40) foretells exile and eventual return; the Haftarah (Yirmiyahu 8:13–9:23) is chanted in the Eicha melody.

Across the diaspora, Tisha B'Av is observed primarily within the synagogue and home. Communities gather for candlelit Eicha readings, listen to shiurim on the meaning of exile, and often screen documentaries about the Shoah, the destruction of Jerusalem, or contemporary threats to the Jewish people. Many shuls host all-night learning sessions of mourning-related texts.

In Israel, Tisha B'Av takes on a national dimension. Restaurants, cafés, and places of entertainment close by law; radio and television stations shift to somber programming — documentaries, biblical readings, and interviews with historians. Public buses often play Eicha or educational broadcasts. Thousands travel to Jerusalem, and the atmosphere across the country — from Tel Aviv to Tzfat — is markedly quiet.

Nowhere is Tisha B'Av felt more powerfully than in Jerusalem. From the moment the fast begins, tens of thousands stream toward the Old City to sit beside the very stones that survived the destruction.

The Kotel & Old City

Massive crowds gather at the Kotel HaMa'aravi (Western Wall) on the eve of Tisha B'Av for the public reading of Eicha. Worshipers sit on the stones of the plaza itself, candles flickering against the ancient wall. Different minyanim — Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yemenite, Chassidic — chant simultaneously across the plaza. Many circle the walls of the Old City during the day, following an ancient custom to walk the perimeter of Jerusalem's ramparts as a form of mourning.

In the Jewish Quarter, communal Eicha readings take place in the Hurva Square, the Cardo, and at the Tiferet Yisrael and Ramban synagogue ruins. Yeshivot in the Old City host public shiurim throughout the night.

The Jerusalem Promenades — Tayelet Arnona / Armon HaNatziv

Across the valley to the south, thousands gather along the Tayelet — the connected promenades of Arnona and Armon HaNatziv. This is one of the most iconic panoramic viewpoints of the Temple Mount in all of Jerusalem. Community organizations and yeshivot arrange communal Eicha readings on the Haas Promenade (Tayelet Haas) and the adjoining Sherover Promenade (Tayelet Sherover), where the entire Old City, Har HaBayit, Mount of Olives, and Silwan spread out below.

The setting is deeply moving: as the sun sets on the 8th of Av, the golden Dome of the Rock glows across the Kidron Valley on the very spot where the Beit HaMikdash once stood. Reading Eicha here — mourning the Temple while gazing directly at its site — is an experience unmatched anywhere in the Jewish world. Many young families, English-speaking olim, and Anglo communities of the Baka, Talpiyot, and Arnona neighborhoods gather here rather than descending to the Kotel.

Other Jerusalem Sites

Additional gatherings are held on Mount Zion, at the City of David excavations (with archaeologists explaining the destruction layer), and at the Yemin Moshe overlook facing Mount Zion and the Old City walls.