Teaching Team

The Nine Days

By Toby Janicki  | Comments (1) | Posted on July 15, 2007

Tonight begins Rosh Chodesh for the month of Av. Traditionally a period of increased mourning takes place for the first nine days of Av. This period of mourning began last month with the fast on the seventeenth of Tammuz and continues until the day after Tisha B’Av [the ninth of Av]. There are numerous customs during this period of three weeks and even more for these final nine days. These customs are prohibitions intended to decrease joy as Israel mourns for the loss of the Temple.

To be honest while I have been practicing the traditional fasts for a while now, I only became aware of these mourning customs a few years back when there was a debate in the Orthodox community in regards to whether or not Matisyahu [a Chassidic reggae singer] could perform a concert during these three weeks. He happened to be touring with Phish’s lead guitarist but that’s a whole other story. Here’s a couple of traditional prohibitions for these nine days:

1. No listening to music
2. No consumption of meat or poultry
3. No consumption of wine
4. No haircuts

Most of these prohibitions are lifted on Shabbat. As I said earlier some of these prohibitions have continued for the full three weeks and others for only these next nine days. On a side note, my two year old daughter threw tradition to the wind last Friday by deciding to cut her own hair before Shabbat, and believe me it wasn’t pretty…

In all seriousness my family and I have chosen to observe many of these customs not out of a sense of “we have to” but because we identify with the rest of Israel in longing for the Temple and Messiah to return. I am reminded of the Master’s words in Matthew:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

In a Hebraic context most likely this refers to the morning over the loss of the Temple and exile that Yeshua Himself predicted was soon at hand. This passage is what got me thinking about observing these mourning customs in the first place. For those interested a full list and discussion of all of these traditional prohibitions can be found here.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

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