1
"While the holy house was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything either greater or more terrible than this noise" (Josephus, "The Jewish War").
2
Tisha B'av is not merely a religious date; mainly, it is a national one. The destruction of the Temple was the peak (and the end) of the destruction of the land in general and Jerusalem in particular. The revolt that broke out in the summer of 66 CE went along with the establishment of an independent Jewish government in Jerusalem that even minted coins that read "To a free Zion." The destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple, therefore, marked the loss of our independence.
When the revolt erupted, the emperor Nero sent Vespasian to quash the Jewish rebellion. He set out in the northern part of the land in the year 66, bringing ruination to the Upper and Lower Galilee, and then went on to conquer the cities of the coast and the coastal plain. Only after that was accomplished did he begin to tighten the siege on Jerusalem. After the year 68 CE saw three Roman emperors crowned and fail, Vespasian was named emperor of Rome in July 69, and appointed his sons Titus to complete the job. After his father's death, Titus inherited the title of emperor.
In our people's tradition, it is no coincidence that those who destroyed Jerusalem became emperors of Rome. Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai prophesied to Vespasian that according to ancient tradition, Jerusalem would fall only to a great ruler. He quoted Isaiah, a man of Jerusalem from the eighth century BCE: "Lebanon will fall before the mighty one" (Isaiah 10:34). "Lebanon" was a code name for the Temple, and according to our sages' interpretation, only a "mighty" person would bring it down. From a historical perspective, a well-known anti-Semitic pattern appears here, one that still exists everywhere – those who deal blows to the Jews (or slander the state of Israel) win international glory.
3
Indeed, Tisha B'Av is not only a religious date, but we must admit that the religious principle (the fast, the observances of mourning, the lamentations, and the reading of Lamentations) preserved the national memory of the vent. In the mid-19th century, Moshe Hess published his book "A Roman and Jerusalem" in which he linked the Italian people's national revival and the liberation of Rome to the Jewish people's national revival and the liberation of Jerusalem: "With the liberation of the Eternal City on the Tiber River, the liberation of the eternal city on Mount Moriah will begin."
Hess, who was far from an observant Jew, talked about the link that cannot be broken between the national resurgence and the religious core that lies at the heart of it. He concluded that his national identity could not be detached "from the legacy of my forefathers, the Holy Land, and the Eternal City." He admitted, "After 20 years of alienation, I have returned, and I am standing amidst my people, taking part in their joyous holidays and days of mourning, in their memories and hopes, in their spiritual wars both among themselves and with other cultures."
Both these sides have always existed in our identity as a people: religious tradition (which includes an immense spiritual and intellectual space) and the national tradition. And in different quantities, (which change from one group among us to another), we can see that one depends on the other.
4
The mourning of Tisha B'Av, including the fast, is not restricted to the religious or traditional. It is an expression of solidarity with the people, with its biography, with its national pain, and mainly with the long memory without which we could not have made it through various historical events. Our sages expressed that by saying that "Whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit and see her future joy." Look around you today and remember, if we hadn't preserved Tisha B'Av, it's doubtful whether we would have managed to return to the land.
