Product List Who we are Statement of Faith Home Orders Contact Us Custom Art Custom Ketubah

What are Megillat Aycha and Tisha B'Av?

The scroll of Aycha (Megillat Aycha/Lamentations) has traditionally been read on the 9th day of the biblical month Av (the fifth month of the biblical year). Known formally as "Tisha B'Av" (the "Ninth of Av"), this day is a day of remembrance commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and the fall of the city of Jerusalem. Both temples fell on the 9th day of Av (in 586 bce and 70 ce, respectively). Aycha is the lament written by the prophet Jeremiah after he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and its aftermath in 586 bce.

There are other events remembered on Tisha B'Av, comprising a total of five events of Jewish national tragedy:
-The failure of the Israelites to enter the promised land after believing the bad report of the 10 spies (Numbers 14:39)
-The destruction of the first (Solomon's) temple, in 586 bce (II Kings 25:1-10, Jeremiah 52: 12-14)
-The destruction of the second (Zerubbabel's/Herod's) temple, in 70 ce. This event was prophesied by Yeshua.
-The defeat of Bar Kokhba (pseudo-messiah of Rabbi Akiva) in revolt against the Romans, 135 ce.
-The plowing under of the site of the temple mount by the Roman governor of Judea to signify the utter destruction of the "Jewish" city of Jerusalem, and to signify the birth of Jerusalem as a "Roman" colony (Aelia Capitalonia), in 136 ce.

Additional events said to have occurred on Tisha B'Av:
The expulsion of the Jewish people from Spain, i.e., the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 ce.
The Jewish prisoners of the holocaust were taken from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp in 1942 ce.

Yeshua echoed Jeremiah in his own lament over Jerusalem in the passage from Matthew 23: 37-39: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!" Directly following this passage, Yeshua is recorded as departing from the temple. At this time his disciples came up to him to point out the temple buildings, whereupon Yeshua prophesied that "not one stone here shall be left upon another." (Matthew 24:2)