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Definition:
Tisha B'av is a Jewish holiday which literally means "ninth day" of the Jewish month Av.
Observances begin at sundown on the eighth day and concludes at sundown on the ninth
day of Av. Many Jews regard this as the saddest day on their sacred calendar because it
commemorates a series of tragic events which hav occurred throughout the history of the
Jewish people.
Among the events when many Jews believe all happened on the ninth day of Av were the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples, the fall of the last bastion of Jewish resistance to Roman rule in the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, and the expulstion of Jews from Spain in 1492.
Observances of Tisha B'av are similar to those of Yom Kippur. People are not allowed to eat or drink, wash or wear cosmetics, nor are they allowed shave or wear leather shoes. All of this is a culmination of mourning which began the previous month with fast of the 17th of Tammuz, a date which commemorates the first breach in the walls of Jerusalem, before the First Temple was destroyed. During these three weeks, neither weddings nor parties are permitted - people aren't even allowed to cut their hair.
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