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Tisha B'Av 2024: August 12-13 Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the month of Av, is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, on which we fast, deprive ourselves and pray. It is the culmination of the Three Weeks, a period of time during which we mark the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his...

Politics reared its ugly head at the Olympic Games once more on Saturday after an Iranian swimmer refused to compete alongside Israeli Tom Be'eri. Mohammad Alirezaei was due to race against Be'eri in the fourth heat of the 100 meter breaststroke, but pulled out, apparently under the orders of the chiefs of the Iranian delegation. "This isn't the first time this has happened and it doesn't surprise me anymore," Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary Efraim Zinger told The Jerusalem Post. "Politics takes precedence over sport with the Iranians and the Olympic spirit is as far from them as east...

Today, the Jewish world commemorates the sad day of the Ninth of Av. This anniversary date of the destruction of both Temples and of other sad events in Jewish history serves as a stark reminder of the dangerous and inimical world in which we live. Bad things can and do happen in this world and the unthinkable can nevertheless become tragic reality. Any study of the Biblical narrative leading up to the destruction of the First Temple or of the Talmudic description of the climate of the Jewish society before the destruction of the Second Temple will impress the reader...