What is Tisha B'Av?
By RUSH BUTTONTuesday, July 17, 2007Tisha B'Av means the ninth of Av. Av is a month in the Hebrew calendar which starts (this year) on Monday, July 16. A lot of terrible events befell the Jewish people on the ninth of Av. Here's some of them:
• On the ninth of Av, Moses broke the first tablets of Law when he came down from Sinai to find the people worshipping the golden calf.
• Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE, under the rulership of Nebuchadnezzar.
• The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, under the leadership of Titus.
• In 135 CE, the final destruction of Jewish General Bar Kochba's army after his last fortress fell. Jerusalem was ploughed with salt by the Roman Emperor Hadrian and thus became a Roman city. Consequently, millions of Jews were sold into slavery throughout the Roman Empire.
• In 1290 CE, King Edward I of England signed an edict expelling all Jews from England.
• In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain after more than 31,000 were burned at the stake.
• World War I began on the ninth of Av.
• Himmler presented his plan to the Nazi Party on the "Final Solution" on July 31, 1940 -- Tisha B'Av.
• One year later to the day, Himmler's plan was formally implemented, initiating the horrors of the Holocaust.
• The beginning of Nazi deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, 1942. They, along with millions of Jews from across Europe and Russia, were subsequently murdered in the death camps.
Is it coincidence that all these events took place on the same date? Well, I, for one, think not.
I was always amazed at the horrors that the Jewish people had suffered at the hands of the Gentile nations over nearly 2,000 years of exile. Why should this be so? I wondered. Then I read this in the Bible concerning the Jewish people: "If you do not follow all the words of this law. Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other ... Among those nations you will find no repose ... You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life." -- Deuteronomy 28:52,64-66.
Wow! I was astounded! This had, most undeniably, happened! However, reading on I saw that God also promised that their restoration would come about: "Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back." -- Deuteronomy 30:5 How amazing that this has happened in my lifetime!
Just as the prophesy stated, for 18 centuries the Jewish people were a nation without a country. In the various lands of their exile they suffered the most vile persecutions: the Inquisition, pogroms and the Holocaust in Germany are just a few of the most familiar examples. Yet, somehow they survived as a people. In just the past 50 years, history has witnessed something remarkable: the fulfillment of a large body of prophecy, as the people of the Bible began to come home.
A lot of folks seem very upset by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comments last week, expressing a "gut feeling" that the U.S. is facing an increased risk of attack this summer. Some folks are even considering building bomb shelters. It tends to make one a mite uneasy just to hear or read about such stuff, knowing that there are, indeed, some Islamic radicals who are trying to blow us to smithereens. But in the above miraculous events, I find great hope and comfort. The Creator of the universe does what He says he will do, and the Bible says that all who believe and call on His name will be saved!
T&D Columnist Rush Button can be reached by e-mail at buttonrl@aol.com or by phone at 803-534-3724. His column appears every Tuesday. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
