Tisha B'Av
| Tisha b'Av | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Hebrew: תשעה באב English: Ninth of Av |
| Type | Jewish religious and national |
| Significance | Mourning the destruction of the ancient Temples and Jerusalem, and other major calamities which have befallen the Jewish people. |
| Observances | Fasting, mourning, prayer, abstaining from physical pleasures |
| Date | 9th day of Av (if Shabbat, then the 10th of Av) |
| 2025 date | Sunset, 2 August – nightfall, 3 August |
| 2026 date | Sunset, 22 July – nightfall, 23 July |
| 2027 date | Sunset, 11 August – nightfall, 12 August |
| 2028 date | Sunset, 31 July – nightfall, 1 August |
| Frequency | annual |
| Related to | The fasts of Gedalia, the Tenth of Tevet and the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the Three Weeks & the Nine Days |
Tisha b'Av (Hebrew: תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב, romanized: Tišʿā bəʾĀḇ, lit. 'ninth of Av') is an annual ta'anit (fast day) in Rabbinic Judaism. (Qaraite Judaism fasts on the 7th and 10th of Av.) It is a commemoration of a number of disasters in Jewish history, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusalem.
Tisha b'Av precedes the end of The Three Weeks. This day is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. It is categorized as a day destined for tragedy. Tisha b'Av falls in July or August in the Gregorian calendar.
Observances of the day include five prohibitions, most notable of which is a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem, is read in synagogue, followed by the recitation of kinnot, liturgical dirges that lament the loss of the Temples and Jerusalem. As the day has become associated with remembrance of other major calamities which have befallen the Jewish people, some kinnot also recall events such as the murder of the Ten Martyrs by the Romans; expulsions from England, Spain, and elsewhere; massacres of numerous medieval Jewish communities by Crusaders; the Holocaust; and the October 7 attacks.