I like to acknowledge on this blog the holidays that we celebrate and offer a brief description of how they are observed. My expertise, however, is in preparing kosher food, and not on the finer points of Judaism. So, I am going to use my own words to explain this holiday.
Today is the holiday of Tisha B’Av (9th of Av), our Jewish national day of mourning. This holiday commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem and many other national calamities.
There are many customs that are observed during the 3 weeks which precede this holiday and in particular from the first day of the Jewish month of Av.
For the past 9 days, we abstained from eating meat, drinking wine, doing or wearing freshly laundered clothes and listening to music.
On this day, we fast as well as observe various other aspects of mourning.
Some people might have difficulty wondering why we mourn for something that was destroyed so many years ago. When the Temples stood, on a spiritual level, the world was different.
Back then, we had an opportunity to connect directly with God. We could feel enveloped by His presence and directly experience His immanence.
Today, we must struggle through prayer and meditation to catch a glimmer of the Divine Presence that we once felt and experienced as a palpable reality. God is here, but we must work harder if we want to connect to Him and feel His protection and care.
The hope is that through fasting and diminishing our physical pleasures, we will be motivated to look within, improve our character and our relationships with other people. When we see the spark of Godliness not only in ourselves, but in other people as well, we will act and relate to others from a God-centered place. We will thereby create a closer relationship with God and merit to rejoice in the rebuilding our Temple.
May we all be blessed to feel that God is always present and actively involved in our life and intimately connected to everything we do with joy and gratitude.
My friend, Tzippy wrote this wonderful post about this holiday in more detail, for anyone who would like to know more. Please check out her blog! It is well named, simpletowow.com. Tzippy is very talented, and makes everything beautiful!
On the Hebrew lunar calendar, today is the tenth of Av. Since Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av) fell out on Shabbos this year and we do not mourn on Shabbos, we commemorate the mourning of the destruction of our Holy Temple today, the tenth of Av. It is a day of sadness, mourning and […]
via The Tenth of Av: The Day Our Family Cries — simple to wow
She also wrote another post on this holiday, but, I am not able to copy the link for some reason.
cookingforthetimechallenged 
Beautifully written…Carol..
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Thank you! It was a nice way to focus my thoughts and make the day more meaningful.🙏
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Sorry for the destruction of your temple. I mourn with you n rejoice at the precious gift of life n friendship we share. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. God will turn your mourning into dancing and ur sorrow into joy. He gave us garments of praise for our spirits of heaviness. Now the physical temple is destroyed n hidden but His word n truth will never be removed from our hearts
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Too true!
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Thank you for your meaningful comment!
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I enjoyed learning more about this holiday and the purpose of fasting in the way it is observed.
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Thank you! 😊
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Thank you so much for sharing this, Carol.Like you, we look for meaning and significance in all that befalls. Pip and the boys
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I believe that finding meaning and purpose in life are critical to coping and peace of mind. Thank you for taking the time to read this!
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Though I can’t know what God thinks, I do believe He smiles with your full heart Carol
💛
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So funny, I just finished running a group on this topic. Whatever we do for others must be done from the heart. After that, how it is received is out of our control.
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And that’s how it should be.. A gift turns into extortion once the words, “After all I’ve done for you” are uttered..
I’ve been tempted to say those words and had to check my tongue and heart..
And I’ve had those words said to me in response to something I couldn’t or wouldn’t do in the future..
If it’s not from the heart then there’s an ulterior motive.. Not a nice trap to set or be caught in..
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That is exactly what I told my patients! Also, it’s a recipe for misery. The greater my expectations, the more likely I am to become angry and resentful, and the less likely I am to be happy and peaceful. A great line I like is “expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” So the answer is , give from a place of love in your heart.💝
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What a beautiful and easy to understand explanation of this holiday! Since I am not Jewish, I really enjoy learning more about the Jewish holidays and traditions. Understanding and appreciating each other is so important in our world, and I completely agree that it is so important to see the spark of Godliness is other people. Thank you!
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Thank you for reading! I believe that if we could relate to each other from the place of our souls, we would be more compassionate and loving towards each other and there would be less conflict in this world.🐣
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Learning about and understanding the laws and observances of different religions is extremely important so that we can respectfully and appropriately allow people to peacefully observe their own beliefs and cultures. I have been following this path of learning since the age of 14. Thank you for sharing this beautifully and carefully written observation. I hope many who are in ignorance will read and understand and many others will be reminded of why they do this 🙂
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Thank you for your kind and thoughtful words. I am a very spiritual person. And, I look for meaning and purpose in everything. That is the only way to cope with obstacles and challenges. I too also enjoy learning about other cultures and spiritual paths, which is why blogging has been so much fun. However, I try to balance my focus on food with an explanation of my culture. If nothing else, because I am not an authority and I would not want people to rely on what I say as the standard.🙏
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It works for me and I think you for your lovely blog – on of my favourite discoveries 🙂
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😊
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Beautifully written – Yashar Koah!
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Thank you! Reading about Tisha B’Av and gathering my thoughts, was how I spent my day. I thought it was a good way to focus my learning.
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You’ve gathered them well, I must say, and expressed them very well, too.
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Thank you. This is one of my passions.😊
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