Summarized by J. Sunness 5772

Associated mazal:  Lion

Also called Menachem-Av:  Comfort after the destruction of the Temple.  Also, Menachem Alef Bais, Hashem will comfort the alef bais of Eicha.  We minimize simcha.

Rosh Chodesh Av:  Yahrtzeit of Aharon HaKohen;  some fast, adopt some customs of mourning even though Rosh Chodesh.

9 days: Don’t eat meat or wine, because the korbonos and nesachim were battel.

Shabbos Chazon: Last of 3 Haftoros of punishment, to be followed by 7 of comfort. 

When Shabbos Chazon is Erev Tisha B’Av, on motz’ai Shabbos only bless on light.  After fast, say havdala with bracha on wine (No besamim).

Seudah Hamafsekes:  Only one cooked item, customarily egg (symbol of aveilus), sit on cloth on floor, dip bread in ashes.  Can keep shoes on.  Can eat after, only if has kavana before.  Some have minhag to have a set meal earlier in day, as a reminder of the seuda during the second Bais Hamikdash, and that we will have in the future after the Geula.

Tisha B’Av:  Eating and drinking, washing, anointing, wearing leather shoes, and marital relations are forbidden.  If fast is on Sunday, and choleh has to eat, say havdala first.  Can’t learn Torah because it gladdens the heart (Pekudas Hashem yesharim m’samchai lev)  Can learn Eichah, Iyov, sad parts of Yirmiyau, perek  V’ailu megalchin.  Change sleeping comfort.  Minhag after Chatzos to clean house and wash floors, as a sign of the geula coming soon, and because Moshiach will be born on Tisha B’Av.

Don’t say Tiskabel in Kaddish until Mincha—Eichah ‘Susam Tefilasi’. Sefardim have minhag of proclaiming what year it is since churban bais sheni.  Minhag not to read Eichah from klaf—we are waiting for geula, so sofrim have not taken time to write it. Someone sitting shiva comes to shul to hear Eichah and kinos. 

Aneinu said by chazzan in Shacharis.  Nachamu said in Mincha.  Put on tallis and tefillin at Mincha, not in Shacharis. 

When Tisha B’Av is on Sunday, after the fast one says havdala and the bracha for wine, not for spices or for the fire.

There is a minhag to do netilas yadayim after the fast, since you only washed up to the knuckles in the morning.  One does not eat meat, cut hair, etc untl Chatzos of the 10^th of Av.  When the fast itself takes place on the 10^th, one has these restrictions only the night following the fast, not on the day of the 11^th.

Reminders of the Churban (zecher l’churban):  Leave 1 square amah unplastered near the entrance to your house. Leave one item off the table for a weekday meal.  A woman should not wear all her jewelry at one time.  Ashes are put on Choson’s head, and a glass is broken at the chupah. 

After the churban of the second Bais Hamikdash, there were some who stopped eating meat totally, etc, out of mourning for the churban.  Rabbi Yehoshua told them that if they stop eating meat because there are no korbonos, why don’t they stop drinking water (no water libations), stop eating fruit (no bikkurim), etc?  He said you can only decree on the public what they are able to do, and therefore these definitions of continued reminders of the churban were adopted.  If we had only the sin of not appropriately mourning Yerushalaim, it would be enough of a reason to prolong our galus.

Mishna Ta’anis lists five events that happened on Tisha B’Av.

• It was decreed on the generation of the midbar, because of the sin of the meraglim, that they would not enter the Land.
• The first Bais Hamikdash was destroyed.
• The second Bais Hamikdash was destroyed.
• Beitar was conquered
• Yerushalaim was plowed after the churban.
• Also, the Spanish expulsion
• (Also, events precipitating WWI)

Shabbos Nachamu:  1^st of seven Haftoros of comfort from Yeshayahu.

The total number of psukim in the 7 haftoros=144, which is one more pasuk than the tochachos in the Torah in B’chukosai, Ki Savo, Nitzavim, and Ha’azinu.

Tu B’Av (15^th of Av) has some of the characteristics of a yomtov.

               No tachanun, a choson does not fast if this is his wedding day.

This day serves as a zecher to a number of things that Bnei Yisrael rejoiced in at different times:

• The day on which the dying in the desert ended

They were not sure that there was no error, and they slept in their ‘graves’ each night until the full moon was seen on the 15^th of Av.  Hashem also resumed speaking to Moshe on that day, because there was simcha in B’nei Yisrael.

• The day that women who inherited a portion of land were allowed to marry men from other shevatim.

This was permitted after the generation that conquered the land.

• The day that Binyamin was allowed to marry women from other shevatim (after Pilegesh b’Giv’a)

These two conditions relating to marrying between different shevatim were lifted on the same day.

Women went out dancing on both Tu B’Av and Yom Kippur.  These days were special in being purified from sin and having sin forgiven, so there was a special protection regarding tzniyus in the women going out dancing.

• The day that Hoshea ben Elah removed the guards and barriers that Yeravam had set on the roads so B’nei Yisrael could not come up to Yerushalaim for the shalosh regalim.

Hoshea opened the roads and said that “Whoever wants to go up to Yerushalaim can go”.  However, this act transferred the guilt for Bnei Yisrael not going up, from the wicked kings on to the people, because many had already gotten used to worshipping avoda zara and did not go.  The 10 shevatim were exiled during Hoshea’s reign.  He should have said “Everyone go up to Yerushalaim”, instead of making it optional.

• The day they stopped cutting wood for the mizbe’ach.  After the 15^th of Av, the sun is less strong and wood cut after that becomes wormy.  The simcha was that those people who cut the wood could now resume learning Torah.

(My son Avraham told me that Rav Gifter said that this shows that it is a great simcha when even a small group of people resume learning.)

• The day that those killed in Beitar were buried

The bracha HaTov v’haMeitiv was set by the chachamim;  HaTov that the bodies did not decompose, and HaMeitiv that they attained burial.

• It was also the last day to plant or graft trees before Rosh Hashana, in terms of shemitah and orlah calculations.
• Some mussar sefarim say that Tu B’Av (rather than Rosh Chodesh Elul) is the beginning of preparation for the Yamim Nora’im, and a person should start making a chesbon of his deeds from the whole year.  Thus, the days of teshuva start from Tu B’Av and extend to Hoshana Rabba.  A hint of this is in Parashas Nitzavim:  meichotaiv eitzecha ad sho’ev maymecha;  from the woodcutters (Tu B’Av, the last day of cutting wood) to the water drawers (Hoshana Raba, the end of the nisuch hamayim for thechag).