Tisha B’Av

9. Aw 5785

The call to remember (Sachor) past tragedies is a significant aspect of Judaism. This call for communal remembrance plays a central role on the ninth day of the month of Av. On this day of mourning and fasting, many calamities are remembered that, according to traditional belief, were decreed by the heavenly court against the Jewish people. At the center of the mourning are primarily the destruction of the First and Second Temples as well as the razing of Jerusalem as consequences of various uprisings against the respective world powers.

The ninth of Av is a true fast day: eating and drinking, personal hygiene, and intimacy are forbidden. One refrains from greeting others and sits either on the floor or on low seating during synagogue visits to express mourning. For the same reason, the usual study of the Talmud is omitted. For this, biblical books and lamentations that originated during the persecutions of the European Middle Ages are read. In many of these texts, the remembrance of the tribulations imposed by God is associated with the confession of one's sins, repentance, and penance. The confession of human guilt seeks to absolve God from arbitrary punishments and explains the evil in the world as something attributable to humans themselves. Throughout Jewish history, this confession of guilt evolved into the fixed phrase "because of our many sins," which is mentioned whenever misfortune is mentioned and – as evidenced by Yiddish in Franconia – takes on the meaning of "unfortunately."