2nd Kings 25:8-9 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month- that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar ...

Submitted by messianicrabbi on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 15:31

(NOTE: These answers are not presented in a particular order, just in the order that they arrived from our contributors. Feel free to add your comments. If you have a burning question send it to steve@saltshakers.com or if you feel able to answer these type of questions email us to join our panel of "messianic rabbis".)

BOB DOTY answers

I will quote you the commentary from the “Jewish Study Bible.” “Babylonians only gained access to the old part of Jerusalem where the Temple stood in the fifth month, the month of Av, 586 B.C.E. The Temple, palaces, and a large part of the city were set ablaze on the seventh day of the month, corresponding to August 16, 586. According to Jeremiah 52:12 they were burnt on the tenth of Av. In the Talmudic tractate Ta’anith that deals with fasts, the dates were reconciled by explaining that on the seventh, the Babylonians gained access to the Temple, but they only set it afire late on the ninth, just before nightfall, and it burned through the tenth. Jewish traditions and contemporary practice maintains the ninth of Av as a 25-hour fast day commemorating the destruction of both the First Temple by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by the Romans. I hope this settles the question for you.

RABBI JOSEPH KRESEFSKY answers

Please my friend, don’t get caught-up in the quagmire of logistics. It can do damage to your walk with the L_rd. Compare it to the fires in California; many acres were burned, however, they weren’t burnt in all one day – it took several weeks to burn all those areas; however, as an example, perhaps on the 9th of Av, of the first two weeks of the Month of Av, San Diego was burning. This is the same concept that scripture if communicating here. See…no confusion. :-)

SANDRA JEFFERY answers

The 9th of Av is called ‘Tish B’Av – The Fast of the Fifth Month, and is of considerable importance and is set aside as a very somber fast on the Jewish calendar. Tish B’Av literally means ‘the ninth of Av’ indicating the date on which this fast is observed. If the ninth happens to be a Sabbath, the fast is postponed until the tenth. Av is the fifth month of the biblical calendar and generally corresponds with July or August on the secular calendar.

Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 587 on the 9th of Av, and Zechariah referred to Tisha B’Av as the fast of the fifth month (Zech. 8:19), describing it as a time of separating oneself through weeping, mourning, and fasting (Zech 7: 3, 5). Unfortunately the saga of the 9th of Av continued with the destruction of the Temple on this same date in A.D. 70; followed by all Jews being expelled from England in A.D. 1290 on the 9th of Av for no crime other than being Jewish; on the 9th of Av in A.D. 1492,the Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain launched the Inquisition, where thousands of Spanish Jews were commanded to convert to Catholicism or be burned at the stake, destroying and uprooting one of the largest and most influential Jewish communities of all time; on the 9th of Av was the date of Hitler’s proclamation to kill the Jews; and lastly, on the 9th of Av in 2005, the Jews were pushed out of Gaza (Zeph. 2: 1 -4) in fulfillment of this scripture. You might also find it interesting to note that World War 1 started on the 9th of Av as well.

The burning of the house of the Lord in Jeremiah 52: 12 – 13 likely fell on the 10th day of the month due to the 9th of Av falling on a Sabbath, as stated in the first paragraph.

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