Tisha B'Av 2034

The dates

Tisha B'Av is the Jewish people's national day of mourning (the date on which both Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed), and, together with Yom Kippur, one of the two full-length fasts of the year. It always falls on 9 Av, which on the civil calendar drifts between mid-July and mid-August. This year the fast begins at sunset the evening before and ends at nightfall on 25/7/34 (Tuesday), about twenty-five hours.

The two Temples that fell

At the centre of this day stand two buildings. Tisha B'Av is the date on which the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, once by Babylon, and again some four hundred years later by Rome. Everything else attached to the day gathered around those two ruins.

The First Temple stood on the Temple Mount for roughly four centuries, from the days of Solomon. In 586 BCE, after a long siege by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the walls of Jerusalem were breached, and about a month later Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, arrived and "burned the House of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem" ¹. Scripture is not consistent about the date: Kings gives the seventh of the month, Jeremiah the tenth. The Talmud resolves it across four days: on the seventh strangers entered the Sanctuary, on the seventh and eighth they ate there and defiled it, and on the ninth, close to dark, they set it alight, and the fire burned on through the whole of the next day. Rabbi Yochanan said that had he lived then he would have fixed the fast on the tenth, when most of the Sanctuary actually burned; the Sages answered that the beginning of a calamity takes precedence ². So the date marks the moment the fire was set, not the moment everything was already ash.

The Second Temple was built by the returning exiles, enlarged by Herod into one of the great structures of the ancient world, and stood at the centre of Jewish life for some four hundred and twenty years. In 70 CE, in the last stage of the Great Revolt, Titus's legions closed on a Jerusalem already starving and torn between its own factions; the walls were breached in Tammuz, and in Av the Sanctuary went up in flames. What ended there was not only a building: the sacrifices stopped, the three pilgrim festivals lost the place they were made for, the priesthood was left without its work, and Jewish sovereignty in the land ended for centuries. What grew in its place, a Judaism centred on the study hall and on prayer, was the answer that came out of that fire.

Other dates gathered around these two. The Mishnah in tractate Ta'anit counts five things that befell the ninth of Av: the decree that the generation of the wilderness would not enter the land, the destruction of the Temple the first time and the second, the capture of Beitar in 135 CE, the last stronghold to hold out in the Bar Kokhba revolt, and the plowing under of the city ³. Later came the expulsion from Spain, whose final deadline for leaving fell on Tisha B'Av in 1492, and the outbreak of the First World War. The list was never formally closed, but it is always measured against what stands at its centre. The same Mishnah sets the tempo of the whole month: once Av begins, we reduce our rejoicing.

What the day looks like

Before. In the last hours of daylight comes the seudah mafseket, the final meal. In many homes it is lentils or a hard-boiled egg, round foods, the same ones traditionally carried into a house in mourning. The table is low, there is no wine and no meat, and there is very little conversation.

In the evening. In the synagogue the lights are down, one or two candles are left burning, and the benches stand empty; people sit on the floor or on low stools, without leather shoes. Then the scroll of Lamentations is opened and chanted in a melody heard on no other night of the year: "Alas, lonely sits the city once great with people; she has become like a widow" ⁴. Whoever reads it speaks in the first person, as someone left behind in a city that has emptied out.

Through the day. The fast runs about twenty-five hours, and alongside food and drink people refrain from washing, from anointing, from leather shoes and from marital relations. In the morning come the kinnot, elegies recited until close to midday, and study stops as well, because learning is a source of joy. After midday people rise from the floor and the tension begins to loosen.

Outside. In Israel the law keeps cafés, restaurants and entertainment venues shut on the eve of Tisha B'Av, and the streets are quieter than usual. The plaza at the Western Wall fills with tens of thousands of people sitting on the stone late into the night.

Kamtza and bar Kamtza

The most famous story about the destruction is not a story about armies. It is a story about an invitation delivered to the wrong address.

A man in Jerusalem had a friend named Kamtza and an enemy named bar Kamtza. He was giving a large feast and sent his servant to fetch Kamtza; the servant confused the names and came back with bar Kamtza. When the host saw his enemy sitting among the guests, he told him to get up and leave.

Bar Kamtza tried to salvage what he could. Let me stay, he said, and I will pay for what I eat and drink. No. I will pay for half the feast. No. I will pay for the entire feast. No. And then, in the Talmud's words: "He took him by his hand, stood him up, and put him out" ⁵.

The detail that turns this from a story about rudeness into a story about destruction is what happened in the room at that moment: the hall was full, sages were sitting in it, and not one of them said a word. Bar Kamtza walked out humiliated, went to the emperor and informed on his own city, and from there events rolled on to the revolt and the burning of the Temple. Rabbi Yochanan opens the whole account with a single line: "Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza" ⁶.

The Talmud in tractate Yoma says the same thing without a story: the First Temple was destroyed for grave sins, but the Second, in which people were occupied with Torah, with commandments and with acts of kindness, was destroyed because of baseless hatred ⁷.

The fox that came out of the Holy of Holies

There is a second story, and it is the one that explains how a day like this survives two thousand years.

Some time after the destruction a group of sages went up to Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus they tore their garments, and when they reached the Temple Mount they saw a fox come out of the place of the Holy of Holies. They burst into tears, and Rabbi Akiva laughed. Why are you laughing, they asked. Why are you weeping, he answered. They said to him: this is the place of which it is written "the stranger who approaches shall die", and now foxes walk through it, and we should not weep? ⁸

Akiva explained that he was reading two prophecies rather than one. Uriah had foretold that Zion would be plowed like a field; Zechariah had foretold that old men and old women would yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem. As long as the first had not come true, he said, one could fear the second never would: "now that Uriah's prophecy has been fulfilled, it is certain that Zechariah's will be." They answered him in these words: Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us ⁹.

That is the structure of the whole day. The Talmud in tractate Ta'anit says that whoever mourns for Jerusalem merits to see her joy ¹⁰; the mourning is not the end but the condition. The public reading of Lamentations is built the same way: the scroll closes on a hard verse, so the congregation repeats the one before it aloud: "Take us back, O God, to Yourself, and let us come back; renew our days as of old" ¹¹, and ends on a request rather than on despair.

In today's Israel, where part of Zechariah's promise is plainly visible, the question of what exactly is being marked on Tisha B'Av comes up every year, and that the question is still live may be the best sign that the day still works.

Frequently asked questions

When is Tisha B'Av?

Tisha B'Av always falls on 9 Av (25/7/34), unless it is deferred from Shabbat to Sunday. On the civil calendar it drifts between mid-July and mid-August.

What time does the Tisha B'Av fast start?

At sunset on the evening before the fast day (25/7/34). Unlike the minor fasts, which begin at dawn, Tisha B'Av starts the night before. Sunset varies by a few minutes between cities; exact times for your location appear at the top of this page.

What time does the Tisha B'Av fast end?

At nightfall on the fast day itself (25/7/34), roughly thirty to forty minutes after sunset depending on local custom.

How long is Tisha B'Av?

About twenty-five hours, from sunset to nightfall the following day. It is one of only two full-length fasts in the year; the other is Yom Kippur. The four minor fasts (the Tenth of Tevet, the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the Fast of Gedaliah and the Fast of Esther) run only from dawn to nightfall.

What happens when Tisha B'Av falls on Shabbat?

The fast is deferred to Sunday, 10 Av. This happens fairly often. Shabbat itself is kept normally, with no signs of mourning, and everything begins at sunset when Shabbat ends.

What happened on Tisha B'Av?

Above all, the two Temples in Jerusalem burned on this date: the First Temple, destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE, and the Second, destroyed by Rome in 70 CE. The Mishnah lists three further events on the same day: the decree that the generation of the wilderness would not enter the land, the fall of Beitar in 135 CE, the last stronghold to hold out in the Bar Kokhba revolt, and the plowing under of Jerusalem. Later centuries added more, among them the final deadline of the 1492 expulsion from Spain and the outbreak of the First World War.

Dates and links

The table at the top of this page shows Tisha B'Av as it actually falls: the Hebrew date, the matching civil date and the weekday, for the selected year and the years after it.

The fast begins at sunset the evening before and ends at nightfall on the fast day, about twenty-five hours.

• Every festival and fast of the year at a glance: Jewish holidays 2027
• The full printable calendar: home page
• The month it falls in: Av

Related pages

• Printable calendar for July 2034
• The Hebrew month of Av 5794
• All the Jewish holidays of 2034
• Printable 2026 Jewish calendar with holidays