If I forget thee, O Jerusalem...

Tisha B'Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av, is a day of mourning Jewish Year 5772: sunset July 28, 2012 

nightfall July 29, 2012

Tisha Be'Av

Excavated stones from the Western Wall of the Temple Mount (Jerusalem), knocked onto the street below by Roman battering rams in 70 C.E

The saddest day on the Jewish calendar

Tisha B’Av means literally, the 9th (tisha) day of the month of Av. There were many tragedies that happened on this day in Jewish history and commemorate them and remember the sadness.
The fast of Tisha B’Av commemorates 5 tragedies that befell the Jewish people on that date:

• Moses sent 12 spies into Israel to look at the land. Ten came back with horrible reports bu two, Joshua & Caleb, brought a positive report. The people Israel believed the bad & not the good, getting themselves 40 years in the desert.
• The first Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple), built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar on the ninth of Av almost 2,500 years ago.
• The second Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple), built by Ezra and Nehemiah, was destroyed by the Romans on the ninth of Av about 1950 years ago. This scattered the Judean empire and began our exile from Israel.
• The failure of Bar Kochba’s revolt against the Roman Empire and the destruction of the city of Betar left 100,000 Jews dead in 132 C.E.
• Jerusalem was destroyed in 133 C.E. after the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the site of the Holy Temple was plowed under by Roman commander Turnus Rufus who renamed it Aelia Capitolina.

Since these tragedies occurred on the ninth of Av, it was decreed as a day of fasting and mourning
Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 121:5
Other tragedies that happened on 9 of Av:

Tisha Be'Av walk

http://www.womeningreen.org/

Two sides of the same coin

By: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

During The Three Weeks between 17 Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, as we recall the destruction of the Temples, we read three of the most searing passages in the prophetic literature, the first two from the opening of the book of Jeremiah, the third, next week, from the first chapter of Isaiah.

At perhaps no other time of the year are we so acutely aware of the enduring force of ancient Israel’s great visionaries. The prophets had no power. They were not kings or members of the royal court. They were (usually) not priests or members of the religious establishment. They held no office. They were not elected. Often they were deeply unpopular, none more so than the author of this week’s haftarah, Jeremiah, who was arrested, flogged, abused, put on trial and only narrowly escaped with his life. Only rarely were the prophets heeded in their lifetimes: the one clear exception was Jonah, and he spoke to non-Jews, the citizens of Nineveh. Yet their words were recorded for posterity and became a major feature of Tanach. They were the world’s first social critics, and their message continues through the centuries. As Kierkegaard almost said: when a king dies, his power ends; when a prophet dies, his influence begins.