The Real Reason the Temple Fell

July 23, 2026 / 9 Av 5786

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July 23, 2026 2:04pm EDT

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I recently listened to an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the Jewish mother and educator whose son Hersh was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, and later murdered in captivity. Long before that unthinkable loss, Rachel was a schoolteacher facing a much smaller problem: how do you make a room full of teenagers care about Tisha B'Av, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av and the saddest date on the Jewish calendar, falling this year in late July, when they've never heard of it and have no reason to feel anything about it at all? Her solution was one question. She'd ask her students: where were you on September 11th?

Mourning Together, Worldwide: Tisha B’Av Events Reach Beyond the Synagogue This Year

Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, catastrophes that Jewish tradition holds occurred roughly 655 years apart on the same Hebrew date, along with a string of later tragedies in Jewish history that fell on the same day. This year, Tisha B’Av begins at sundown on Wednesday, July 22, and continues through nightfall on Thursday, July 23.

The Real Reason the Temple Fell

July 23, 2026 / 9 Av 5786

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