Imagine if the U.S. had experienced multiple traumatic events over the centuries since its colonization, all occurring on September 11. That’s what the 9th of Av – or Tisha B’Av (TISH-ah Beh-Ahv) in Hebrew – is like for Israel and the Jewish people.
It’s easy to see why Tisha B’Av is a Jewish day of mourning. Over the millennia, the number of tragedies that have befallen Israel on this precise date is astonishing. Most notably, both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on this date more than 600 years apart.
According to Jewish tradition, the first adversity to occur on the 9th of Av was in the wilderness just outside the Promised Land. The 10 spies returned to the Hebrew camp on the 8th of Av and reported that the land was plentiful. But eight of them persuaded the camp that it was unconquerable, despite God’s declaration that He would give it to them.
That night, after the calendar had turned to the 9th day of Av, the people cried out that they would rather go back to Egypt than face certain slaughter by the Canaanites in the Promised Land. As a result, that entire generation was not allowed to enter the Land. They wandered in the wilderness until the last of them died before God permitted their children into the Land He had pledged to them.
