Transforming Tisha B’Av: From Mourning to Joy

Is it time to transform Tisha B’Av into a day of joy? Should the Jewish people reconsider how they commemorate Tisha B’Av?

Tisha B’Av is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, marking the end of Jewish sovereignty in the land of our ancestors, Israel. The Talmud lists five calamitous events that occurred on the ninth of Av, all related to the Jewish people’s connection to the land of Israel. The principal events are the destruction of the First Temple and the destruction of the Second Temple, with the latter leading to the two-thousand year period of the diaspora, known in Hebrew as the galut (the exile).

In the post-Talmudic era, Tisha B’Av has come to commemorate numerous catastrophic events in Jewish history: the First Crusade, which decimated various Jewish communities, the expulsions from England in 1290, from France in 1306, and from Spain in 1492. It also marks the Holocaust. These tragedies all occurred at the hands of our non-Jewish hosts in the diaspora.

The week after Tisha B’Av, we read from the Book of Zechariah. The prophet envisions a time when all the fasts mourning the destruction of the Temple will turn into festive occasions for celebration and triumph. Zechariah relays God’s message that these fasts “shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah” (Zechariah 8:19).

On Tisha B’Av, we grieve for the loss of our homeland and the end of Jewish sovereignty in our land. We mourn the calamities that befell our people, whose safety and existence depended on the grace and protection of others.

Yet, Zechariah’s vision is now our reality. Jewish sovereignty has been restored. The Talmudic rabbis observed Tisha B’Av to mourn the loss of our sovereignty, but that sovereignty has now been restored. Jews may live outside of Israel, but the period of exile is over. Zechariah’s prophecy of redemption and the restoration of Jerusalem has been fulfilled. Imagine what it would mean for the Jewish psyche, for our national and spiritual identity, if we made this transformation. Imagine finding a way to commemorate tragic moments in our history but also recognizing the fulfillment of the prophecy that Israel’s rebirth represents.

Imagine transforming Tisha B’Av into a day of joy. 

Such a transformation would be a powerful way for us to acknowledge that we no longer live in a period of diaspora, but in a period of national redemption.