“There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Song For Israel will bring you teaching from time to time, of the Jewish holidays and their significance.

Life-size Menorah prepared for the new Temple to come.

On the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av is the time for mourning, the saddest day in Jewish history, which primarily commemorates the destruction of the First(586 BC) and Second (70 CE) Temples. It boggles the mind to think that both Temples were destroyed on the very same day of the Hebrew calendar.

According to some rabbis, this day of fasting is as significant to the Jewish people as Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), which is considered the holiest day of the Jewish year.

In synagogues around the world and at the Wailing Wall which is Judaism’s holiest site, religious Jews gather to mourn the destruction of the Temples and to read from the words of the Prophet Jeremiah and portions of the book of Lamentations.

Wailing Wall (aka Western Wall) at Temple site in Jerusalem.

Other tragic events that the Jewish people encountered on this exact same day are also remembered on Tisha B'Av, most notably the expulsion of Jews from Spain.

Other Tragic Events That Took Place On Tisha B’Av:

132 CE, the Romans crushed Bar Kokhba's revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 100,000 Jews
133 CE, following the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the Temple site and surrounding areas were plowed.
1095, the First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II, killing 10,000 Jews in its first month and annihilating Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland
1290 King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England
1492 an edict of expulsion of the Jews in Spain was carried out
1914 World War I broke out, setting the stage for the later devastation of World War II and the Holocaust
1942 on the eve of Tisha B'Av, the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Hitler’s Treblinka death camp began
1994, the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 86 and wounded 300 others
2005, more than 8,500 Jewish residents were expelled from Gaza as part of Israel’s ill-fated Disengagement Plan, a desperate bid for peace designed to further relations with Palestinian Arabs. This expulsion was a Land for Peace deal with the Palestinians that obviously did not bring about peace.

How can Believers, as fellow citizens in the commonwealth of Israel, respond on this day to the grief of the Jewish people? This is the time to weep with those who weep and to mourn with our brethren, the people of Israel.

Jesus gave us His example as He wept with compassion when He foresaw the destruction of the Holy Temple and the disaster that would come upon Israel (Matthew 23:37-38). The Jewish people long for and pray daily for the restoration of the Holy Temple. Plans and preparations are already being made in Jerusalem for the Third Temple.

The New Testament indicates that in the end times, the Temple will be rebuilt.

The Land of Israel is still far from being the "Holy Land" it is destined to be. God is seeking intercessors to stand in the gap for Israel. Will you pray for the Jews as they mourn the history they remember this day? Will you pray for Israel?

News

TOMORROW starts the Holy "Fast" Day of Tisha B'Av