Monday, July 23, 2007

Tisha B'Av

Tonight at sunset through sunset tomorrow evening, Jewish people across the world will be observing the fast of Tisha B'Av--well, at least for those of us that do observe the holiday like myself.

This date, in the Jewish calendar, is the saddest date in the history of Judaism. Just about everything bad that happened to the Jewish people has happened on this date:
-The destruction of the First (586 BCE) and Second Temple (70 CE)
-The 12 spies returned from surveying the land of Canaan(Numbers 13-14)
-Bar Kokhba's revolt failed as he was killed
-The razing of Jerusalem
-Expulsion from England (1590)
-Germany declared war on Russia in World War 1 (1914)
-Preparations for the Final Solution (1941)
-Transports reached Treblinka and Extermination of the Warsaw Ghetto (1942)

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