The saddest day of the year
Tisha BeAv (Hebrew תשעה באב — “the ninth of Av”) is a day of mourning and fasting in memory of the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem and other calamities that befell the people.
By tradition, on the very same day — the ninth of Av — both the First Temple (586 BCE) and the Second (70 CE) were destroyed. A thread of grief stretched across the centuries.
It is the end of three weeks of mourning. The last meal is eaten before sunset; leather shoes are removed, people sit low to the ground, and by candlelight read the scroll of Eichah — the lament over the destroyed city.
Tisha BeAv in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is home to one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities and a long tradition of interfaith tolerance. On Tisha BeAv, in the synagogues of Baku and Quba, the bright lights are dimmed, people sit low, and Eichah is read by candlelight.
A special place belongs to Krasnaya Sloboda (Qırmızı Qəsəbə) near Quba — one of the few places in the world where Mountain Jews live as a compact community. Here the ancient lament melodies in Juhuri sound as they did for the ancestors, generation after generation.
Enter the day
Three facets of Tisha BeAv — what we mourn, the laws and customs of the day, and the consolation that follows.
The lament
“How lonely sits the city, once full of people” — the opening words of the scroll of Eichah.
The day in numbers
A few numbers that hold the memory of this day.
Keep a name in memory
Tisha BeAv reminds us that memory guards what is gone and keeps a name from vanishing. memoryname.com helps you create a memorial page for a loved one — to preserve their name, face, and story, so they remain with us and with those who come after.
Go to memoryname.comAn external partner remembrance service.
