The 9th of Av – A day of mourning
Av is the 5th month, in the Hebrew (Jewish) calendar, God’s calendar.
The 9th of Av, when the 1st temple (Solomon’s temple) and the 2nd temple (Herod’s temple) was destroyed.
This became a day of fasting and prayer (only one day’s fast), because on this day, the 9th of Av is the day when the temple that hosted God’s holy presence and religion was destroyed.
So we comemorate it as a day of praying, studing God’s word and also interceeding and mourning for Jerusalem (praying for the peace of Jerusalem, Psalm 122:1-9) and showing that we are standing with Israel (the Jewish nation).
Mourning also meaning that a joyful event like getting married cannot take place in this season. And the other dimension of mourning also means; to appreciate more of God’s word and commandmentsin this season,
where we occupy ourselves with the Torah (old testament and the new testament) reading and praying for the restoration of Israel (Psalm 122:6).
Many tragic events took place against the children of Israel (the Jews) in this month.
· Both the first and second Holy Temples which stood in Jerusalem were destroyed on Av 9:
The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the year (423 BCE), and the second by the Romans in the year 69 CE.
· The Jews of England were expelled by King Edward I on this date, 9th of Av, in 1290.
· The Jews of Spain were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella on the 9th of Av of 1492, terminating many centuries of flourishing Jewish life in that country.
Av; (the fifth month on the hebrew calendar); the month of repenting and returning back to God.
The fifth month of Av, is the month when people (the nations and Israel) starts to get the desire for the father (the God of the Jews), through the willingness to change, by realizing their mistakes and evil which was done by the other nations against the Jewish (Israel).The fifth month called Av on the Hebrew calendar is a month of Teshuvah.
This is also a season of relating your physical behaviors or natural characteristics to God’s commandments, that will help us to inhabit the true spiritual inheritance of God’s DNA.
