The fast of Tisha B’Av, the “saddest” day in the Jewish calendar, begins Monday evening at sundown and ends Tuesday night. In New York, the fast begins Monday at 8:03 pm EST., ending the following night at 9:15 pm.
Its name literally means “the ninth day of [the Jewish month of] Av,” the date of some of the gravest tragedies to have befallen the Jewish People. Tisha B’Av is a day of lamentations that first and foremost marks the anniversaries of the destruction of the First and Second Temples by the armies of Babylon and Rome, respectively.
Jews around the globe spend hours mourning the destruction, the Exile of the Divine Presence and the unredeemed state of the Nation of Israel by reciting and studying the traditional Tisha B’Av lamentations and the Scroll of Eichah (Lamentations). Read more. See photos »
