Published: 6 August 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Such practices in the month of Av probably started right after the destruction of the First Temple. The fifth century BCE prophet Zechariah mentions an inquiry sent from the exiles in Babylon to the Judean community of returnees to find out “should I [still] mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” (Zechariah 7:8).
By that time, it seems, the Jewish communities were already familiar with laments over the national destruction, such as found today in the biblical book of Lamentations (Eicha), weeping with the grieving widow, Jerusalem.
Over time, more and more tragedies in Jewish history were related to the mourning of Tisha B'Av. From medieval persecutions to key events in the Holocaust, and even to the 2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip – Tisha B'Av was chosen to represent additional national calamities.
But the tradition of mourning calamities was already known in national practice before the emergence of Tisha B'Av. Narratives, prophecies and psalms in the Bible recount suffering afflicted on the Israelites from early days. While the causes of the disasters can vary from natural to political, most tragedies were assigned a religious or moral cause – giving the credit to God for harming the people for a justifiable reason.
Thus, already in early phase of their life as a nation, after surviving Pharaoh’s attempts to destroy them, and prior to their own campaign to destroy other nations, the Israelites were almost destroyed by God. The story of the wandering in the desert lists numerous events that nearly culminate in the destruction of the people by God.
This is indicated in the incident of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32); in the story of those who complained (Numbers 11); in the saga of the spies (Numbers 14:13), and in the quarrel with Korah (Numbers 16). The divine threats against their lives was deeply ingrained in memories of the early formation of the people.
The scenario of God annihilating a whole nation is not an impossible one in the eyes of the biblical narrators. They are familiar with God’s reputation from the story of the flood (Genesis 6–8), from Sodom and Gemorah (Genesis 19), from Joshua’s campaign to annihilate the Canaanite nations (Joshua 6–11), and from the slaughter of the entire population of Amalek (1 Samuel 15). The same fate could be lurking around the corner for the people of Israel themselves.
The idea that the Israelites are not exempt from God’s threats of destruction stands in a dialectic relationship with the belief found in all biblical traditions that Israel is God’s protégé. The Torah tells that God has enacted an “… everlasting covenant” with the people (Genesis 17:7) and considered them his “treasured possession … a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5–6), after choosing them “out of all the peoples on earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
The prophets compare the relationship with God to the union of a man and his wife (Hosea 2:19–20); to the closeness of a father to his son (Jeremiah 31:20), and the commitment between a teacher and his preferred disciple (Amos 3:2).
The special status of the people does not grant them an automatic immunisation against afflictions or the danger of destruction
But the special status of the people does not grant them an automatic immunisation against afflictions or the danger of destruction, which could only come from God’s own initiative. This is a central tenet in the monotheistic belief: the power that provides life brings also death, and any divine protection may come alongside divine destruction. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, the God of Israel “form the light, and create darkness … make peace, and create evil” (Isaiah 45:7).
God’s willingness to destroy the people of Israel in the Bible is the other side of the coin of chosenness, a status that carries the cost of high expectations. The people are obligated with non-negotiable expectations, while God constantly reevaluates his commitment to them. He can revoke the relationship at any time, either by destroying the people or by forsaking them. Meanwhile, however, due to various reasons, he keeps the people alive and close to him, though under a constant threat.
This theological concept answers questions about the causes of events in life ("why things happen"), stressing that God controls everything. Mesopotamian myths from the biblical period often deal with these questions by providing arbitrary justifications for daily occurrences, attributing human suffering to the deities’ whims.
To avoid this sense of uncertainty, the Bible introduces the notion of theodicy – justifying God’s actions in the world (from Greek: Τheos – God, dikē – judgment). In biblical terms, the idea is not only that the deity is one, but also that he represents righteousness in everything he does, i.e., in everything that occurs in the world. As elegantly summarised in the last words of the Tisha B’Av lamentations, the people’s devastation is part of God’s good righteous actions:
Lam 5:19 But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure.
This is a concise demonstration of the monotheistic package – everything, including catastrophes, comes from the one god, who is good and omnipotent. If God is good, then, the suffering must be justifiable. If God is good – the people must be wrong.
Within this framework, mourning and remorse over tragedies can still be expressed, but the focus is directed inside – carrying the blame and bearing responsibility. While encouraging reflection and self-assessment, this theology leads to a sinful and shameful self-image, internalising guilt-feelings, disappointment, and self-hatred. This internal state, one would say, is the additional tragedy of Tisha B’Av.
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Photo: Thousands attend a Tisha B'Av prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2012 (Noam Moskowitz/Flash90)
