By David Nix
The History of the date called "Tisha B'Av"
List
of Dates
Tisha B'Av will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:
Jewish Year 5766 : sunset August
2, 2006 - nightfall August 3, 2006
Jewish Year 5767 : sunset July 23, 2007 - nightfall July 24, 2007
Jewish Year 5768 : sunset August 9, 2008 - nightfall August 10, 2008
Jewish Year 5769 : sunset July 29, 2009 - nightfall July 30, 2009
Jewish Year 5770 : sunset July 19, 2010 - nightfall July 20, 2010
On this day in that year, God decreed that the generation of the Exodus would all die out in the desert; only their children would live to inherit the Land of Promise.
With the gift of hindsight, the talmudic rabbis concluded that God must have issued another decree that day, as well: "Because you, Israel, cried for no reason on this day, I, God, will see to it that you have reason to cry on this day forever after."
According to Jeremiah, it was on the ninth of Av in the year 586 BC that Babylonian forces set fire to the First Temple. By the end of the next day, the Temple was no more.
On the ninth of Av in the year 70 AD, according to a host of religious and historical sources, Roman forces set fire to the Second Temple. By the next day, it too was no more.
In the year 135 AD, on the ninth day of Av, the Judean revolt against Rome came to a crushing end with the fall of Betar. Bar Kochba lay dead and a series of executions was begun that would wipe out nearly an entire generation of religious leaders and scholars, including Rabbi Akiva.
On Aug. 2, 1492, the greatest Diaspora community the world had ever known until then came to an end with the departure from Spain of the last of its expelled Jews. Aug. 2, 1492 was Tisha B'Av.
On Aug. 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. World War I had begun. It would set into motion events that would lead to the creation of the Soviet Union, which would wage a 75-year campaign to destroy everything Jewish within its borders.
The war would end in the creation of a peace so debilitating to Germany that its people became easy prey to the nationalistic ranting of an itinerant house painter named Adolf Hitler. Aug. 1, 1914 was Tisha B'Av.
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Thus the ninth of Av is supposed to be a day of fasting and prayer.
However it is not to always be a day of mourning.
Tisha
B'Av is a fast day, and a man will not put on his tallit until midday (by
that time the fire had died down in the Temple).
It is forbidden to wear shoes, bathe, wear perfume, shave, wash clothes
or exchange greetings. Mirrors are traditionally covered and mourners
sit on the ground, or a low stool, just as one would do when mourning
the loss of a loved one. Mourners meals are eaten (boiled eggs
with bread dipped in ash).
In
the synagogue, the lights are dimmed and the embroidered cover of the
Ark is removed; symbolizing the destruction of the great curtain which
hung in the entrance to the Holy of Holies. Prayers and scripture
readings are chanted in hushed, melancholy terms and Jeremiah 8 v13 to
9 v23 is read along with all of Lamentations.
"My eyes do fail with tears.... for the destruction of the daughter
of my people (Jerusalem). " Jeremiah.
Ariel is the
ancient name for Jerusalem, but it is also the current name of a large Jewish
suburb of Jerusalem, just outside the city, proper.
It is my opinion that the description that follows is an atomic attack.
The word Ariel sounds like "altar hearth" in Hebrew. In this case it
will be a place of human sacrifice. If Hamas attacked Jerusalem itself,
they would be attacking a holy city to three religions. But if they attacked
Ariel, they would 'only' be killing Jews, thus it is a better target from
their point of view.
The Israelis hold Syria responsible for Hamas' behavior, so I would expect
them to retaliate by nuking
Damascus. Things will go downhill from there.
Drosnin's slide, from his book "The Bible Code", says
the "ninth of Av is the day of the third". WW3 is the one war
in history that indeed will only take a day to start and finish.
ISA 29:1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
ISA 29:2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
ISA 29:3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
ISA 29:4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
ISA 29:5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
ISA 29:6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
ISA 29:7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
ISA 29:8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
ISA 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
ISA 29:10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
ISA 29:11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
ISA 29:12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
ISA 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
ISA 29:14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
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My (D. Nix) note here. This sounds as if God miraculously delivers the city.
Perhaps Hamas nukes the place, but in the morning, the city and its' inhabitants
are still there. This might be what it takes to convince the Jews that there
really is a God. Most "Jews" in Israel are not religious at all.
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Andy's note: Where it says "marvelous" it means "astonishing"
or "amazing" - but not necessarily in a good way.
ISA 29:15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
ISA 29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
ISA 29:17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
ISA 29:18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
ISA 29:19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
ISA 29:20 For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
ISA 29:21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
ISA 29:22 Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
ISA 29:23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
ISA 29:24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
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JER 49:20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken
against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants
of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely
he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
JER 49:21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the
cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.
JER 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread
his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty
men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
JER 49:23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad:
for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow
on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
JER 49:24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee,
and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman
in travail.
JER 49:25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
JER 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and
all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of
hosts.
JER 49:27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it
shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.
"An
oracle concerning Damascus: See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will
become a heap of ruins."
The Prophet Isaiah - Chapter 17, verse 1 NIV
Damascus
Will No Longer Be a City
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