תשעה באב - מקורות מרכזיים

Alas! Lonely sits the city Once great with people! She that was great among nations Is become like a widow; The princess among states Is become a thrall.

On the rivers of Babylon, the beauty of our lights darkened

Remember, LORD, what has occurred to us, Alas! Look and see our disgrace. Alas! what has occurred to us.

When the month of Av arrives, we should restrict such activities that create happiness. You should not build a building meant for enjoyment or strictly for relaxation. If you made a contract with a non-Jew, to have your house painted, and you can persuade him for a small compensation, to wait until after Tishah beAv, that would be the right thing to do, but if he cannot be persuaded, you may have the work done. If a Jew has a lawsuit against a non-Jew, he should postpone it, because it is an unlucky period. If possible, he should postpone it until after the end of the month, or at least until after Tishah beAv. We do not sanctify the new moon until after Tishah beAv.

One may not eat two cooked dishes at the last meal before the fast (se’uda ha-mafseket) of Tisha Be-Av (Ta’anit 26b), because that is when our mourning over the destruction of the Temple intensifies, and it is inappropriate, at such a time, to indulge oneself by eating a multi-course meal. One may eat a cooked dish, however, because this is not particularly indulgent. In addition, one may not eat meat or drink wine at this meal (ibid.), because these are dignified foods that bring joy. Indeed, the custom nowadays is to refrain from eating meat and drinking wine from the beginning of Av (see above 8:13); nonetheless, the prohibition to eat these items up until the se’uda ha-mafseket is based on a custom from the time of the Rishonim, while eating them at the se’uda ha-mafseket is a rabbinic prohibition. Therefore, a sick person or a postpartum woman, who could gain strength by eating meat, may do so during the Nine Days, but not at the se’uda ha-mafseket.

(1) "How (eichah) does she dwell..." (Lamentations 1:1): There are three who prophesied with the language of "eichah": Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Moses said, (Deuteronomy 1:12), "How (eichah) will I carry alone...". Isaiah said, (Isaiah 1:21) "How (eichah) she has become a prostitute..." Jeremiah said, (Lamentations 1:1) "How (eichah) does she dwell..." Said Rabbi Levi: It is compared to a noble woman who had three friends. One saw her in her tranquility, one saw her in her recklessness, and one saw her in her degenerateness.

§ Apropos the war that led to the destruction of the Second Temple, the Gemara examines several aspects of the destruction of that Temple in greater detail: Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Happy is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief” (Proverbs 28:14)? Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza. The place known as the King’s Mountain was destroyed on account of a rooster and a hen. The city of Beitar was destroyed on account of a shaft from a chariot [rispak].

The Great Distress The Jews Were In Upon The Conflagration Of The Holy House. Concerning A False Prophet, And The Signs That Preceded This Destruction.1. While the holy house was on fire, every thing was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greater or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; the multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away by the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out into groans and outcries again: Pera did also return the echo, as well as the mountains round about [the city,] and augmented the force of the entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it, that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were slain more in number than those that slew them; for the ground did no where appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fled from them. And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans,] and had much ado to get into the outward court, and from thence into the city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As for the priests, some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes that were upon it, with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot them at the Romans instead of darts. But then as they gained nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retired to the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they tarried; yet did two of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves by going over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and taken their fortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burnt together with the holy house; their names were Meirus the son of Belgas, and Joseph the son of Daleus.