From sunset to nightfall
Eating and drinking are forbidden for about 25 hours. The ill, and women who are pregnant or nursing, must ask a rabbi and a doctor.
Holidays9 Av · The day of mourning
Mourning for both Temples and for Sefarad: Eicha, the kinot, sitting low, and the turn toward consolation.
On the ninth of Av both Temples were destroyed: the first by Babylon in 586 BCE, the second by Rome in 70 CE. On the same day the spies' report brought the decree of forty years in the desert, Betar fell in the Bar Kokhba revolt, and the Temple Mount was plowed.
For Sephardim the day also carries the memory of 1492. Don Yitzhak Abarbanel wrote that the last Jews left Spain around the ninth of Av.
Yet it is called a "mo'ed," a festival: the Sages taught that the Messiah is born on Tisha B'Av, and the mourning already points toward consolation.
The five afflictions
Eating and drinking are forbidden for about 25 hours. The ill, and women who are pregnant or nursing, must ask a rabbi and a doctor.
No washing for pleasure, anointing, leather shoes or marital relations.
We sit on the floor or on low stools, as mourners, until midday; then mourning eases.
Torah gladdens the heart, so we learn only sad subjects: Eicha, Job, the destruction in Jeremiah and the laws of mourning.
The seudah mafseket before the fast is simple: bread, a hard-boiled egg and lentils, often dipped in ashes, eaten sitting low.
The sound of memory
The Book of Lamentations is chanted at night, by dim light, to melodies that differ from Morocco to Aleppo to Istanbul.
Elegies from Yehuda HaLevi, Ibn Gabirol and many later poets, said at night and in the morning. In Ladino communities, kinot in Ladino as well.
Kinot in LadinoIn many communities they are worn only at Minha, when the mourning begins to lift.
Nahem, the prayer of consolation for Jerusalem, is added to the Amidah, and Anenu.
Shaharit and Minha
"When you have children and grandchildren... you will return to the Lord your God."
Haftarah: Jeremiah 8:13–9:23
The prayer of Moses and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
Haftarah: Isaiah 55:6–56:8 in many communities
Across the Sephardic world
Eicha and kinot chanted with melodies shaped by the Andalusian tradition, the synagogue lights dimmed for the evening service.
Eicha chanted in the maqam traditions of Aleppo, in a carefully kept order of service.
Kinot in Ladino alongside the Hebrew, some still sung today.
Iberian liturgy joined to Italian customs in the Sephardic congregations of Italy.
From mourning to consolation
A light dairy meal is common. Because the Temple burned into the 10th of Av, many avoid meat and wine until midday of the next day.
The following Shabbat begins the seven haftarot of consolation: "Comfort, comfort My people."
Six days later comes Tu B'Av, one of the happiest days of the year.
Tu B'AvSephardic U media
Keep learning
Questions
Abarbanel records that the last Jews left Spain around the ninth of Av 1492, and the Expulsion joined the calamities mourned that day.
The fast moves to Sunday, and the meal before Shabbat ends is a regular Shabbat meal.
To mourn as a mourner does during the shiva, until midday.
Only sad subjects: Eicha, Job, parts of Jeremiah and the laws of mourning.