Taanit 29a (כט.) — the Talmud in English

And it was found that it was written

and it was found that this was written on the same image whose hand had been broken]:

You desired to destroy the House; your hand completed the task for him.

That is, the image said to its companion: “You desired to destroy the House of the Holy One, blessed be He, by inducing Israel to worship you. I took revenge upon you and paid you back with your hand.”

And since its hand was broken, Scripture did not count it. Therefore, it says, “the abomination that causes desolation,” in the singular, although in fact there were two there.

We learned in our Mishna:

On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would not enter the Land.

From where do we derive

that this occurred on the Ninth of Av?

As it is written: “And it came to pass in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the Tabernacle was erected.”

And the Master said:

in

the first year Moses made the Tabernacle,

and its construction was completed on the twenty-fifth of Kislev.

Moses waited until the month of Nisan, which was the beginning of the

second

year, and then

Moses erected the Tabernacle.

And

in that year

he sent

the

spies.

And it is written: “And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was lifted from above the Tabernacle of the Testimony,” and it is written

later in Scripture:

“And they journeyed from the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days.”

Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said: On that day

the third day of their journey,

they turned away from following the Lord ,

as is stated later in Scripture: “And the people were as murmurers,” and so on. This means that it was the twenty-third of the second month, the month of Iyyar.

And it is written

afterward:

“And the rabble among them had a craving, and the Israelites also sat and wept

and said: Who will feed us meat

and so on.”

And it is written

that Moses said to them: “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; you shall eat neither one day nor two days, and so on,

until a full month,

until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you,

and so on.”

That episode in which they had a craving occurred on the twenty-third of Iyyar, and afterward they ate meat for a month. It follows that

it was

the end of that month, on the

twenty-second

of

Sivan

because the month was deficient, consisting of twenty-nine days.

And it is written

afterward that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, and Miriam was punished and stricken with leprosy. And it is written:

“And Miriam was shut out for seven days.”

It was

the end of those seven days, on the

twenty-ninth of Sivan.

And it is written

immediately after that episode:

“Send forth men

that they may spy out the land of Canaan.”

And it was taught in a beraita: On the twenty-ninth of Sivan Moses sent the spies.

That is, this occurred immediately after Miriam’s seven-day period of confinement had ended.

And it is written: “And they returned

the spies

from touring the land at the end of forty days.”

That very night they spread an evil report about the Land, and the people wept; and the Holy One, blessed be He, established it as a night of weeping for generations, as will be stated below.

The Gemara asks: According to the calculation above, it emerges that

these

days from the time the spies were sent until their return

were forty days less one

there were thirty-nine days!

For this is the calculation: Two days remained of Sivan, namely, the twenty-ninth itself, on which the spies were sent, and the thirtieth. In addition, there were twenty-nine days of Tammuz, and eight days that passed in Av until the spies returned, since the people wept on the following night. The total is thirty-nine days.

Yet the verse states that the spies returned after forty days from the time they set out!

Abaye said:

The month of

Tammuz in that year

was

made full

they made it a full month of thirty days. This added one more day, and the forty days ended on the Ninth of Av.

As it is written: “He proclaimed an appointed time against me to crush my young men.”

The day on which the month is intercalated is called an appointed time , and “to crush my young men” refers to the destruction of the Temple. That is, the destruction of the Temple was fixed for the Ninth of Av because that month was made full.

And it is written: “And the entire congregation lifted up their voice, and the people wept that night.”

When the people heard the evil report that the spies had spread about the Land of Israel, they raised their voices in weeping. They did not heed Joshua and Caleb, who said that the Land was very, very good.

Rabba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: That night

on which the people wept

was the night of the Ninth of Av,

as follows from the calculation presented above.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said

to Israel:

You wept

on this night

a weeping for no reason,

over nothing,

and I shall establish for you

on this night

a weeping for generations

to come, over the destruction of the Temple.

And on that night it was decreed upon them that they would not enter the Land, as it is stated: “I am alive, says the Lord, and so on: In this wilderness your carcasses shall fall, and so on; if you shall come into the Land, and so on—except for Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun, and so on.”

We learned in our Mishna:

The Temple was destroyed the first time.

From where do we derive that the First Temple was destroyed on the Ninth of Av?

As it is written

in the Book of Kings:

“And in the fifth month

which is the month of Av,

on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylonia, came to Jerusalem and burned the House of the Lord, and so on.”

But

on the other hand

it is written

in the Book of Jeremiah:

“And in the fifth month, on the tenth

the tenth day

of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, came and stood before the king of Babylonia in Jerusalem,

and burned the House of the Lord

and so on.”

And it was taught in a beraita: It is impossible to say

that the destruction of the Temple occurred

on the seventh

of the month,

as it is already stated

in the Book of Jeremiah that the destruction occurred

on the tenth

of the month.

And it is impossible to say

that the destruction occurred

on the tenth

of the month,

as it is already stated

in the Book of Kings that the destruction occurred

on the seventh

of the month!

How so?

How is it possible that in one place it is written that the destruction occurred on the seventh of the month, while elsewhere it is written that it occurred on the tenth?

Rather, this is what happened:

On the seventh

of the month,

the gentiles entered the Sanctuary, and ate and committed profanation there

on the

seventh

and

eighth days.

And

on the

ninth day, toward nightfall

toward evening,

they set it on fire, and it continued burning throughout the entire

tenth day,

all of it.

As it is stated: “Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the evening shadows are stretched out.”

That is, there was woe and sorrow for us when the day declined, on the ninth day toward nightfall, when they set the Temple on fire.

And this is what Rabbi Yoḥanan said

:

If only

I had

been present in that generation

in which the Temple was destroyed,

I would not have established it

I would not have established the day of mourning over the destruction

on

the

tenth day,

rather than on the ninth.

Because

as we said,

most of the Sanctuary was burned

on the tenth day,

itself.

The Minḥat Ḥinukh [commandment It might appear that the Sages said this without any hint in Scripture. But

And the Rabbis,

why did they establish the day of mourning and fasting on the ninth day, when most of the Sanctuary was burned on the tenth?

The Gemara explains: The reason is that

the beginning of the calamity

the time when the calamity began

is preferable

preferable and more significant. Therefore, the Sages established the day of mourning on the ninth, and not on the tenth.

We learned in our Mishna:

And on the second

meaning that the Second Temple, too, was destroyed on the Ninth of Av.

From where do we derive

this?

As it was taught in a beraita: Merit

and benefit

are rolled forward

to a day

that is

already, in any event,

a meritorious day.

And

a matter of

liability

is rolled forward

to a liable day.

Rashi wrote in tractate Arakhin [11b] that this is the meaning of the statement: “In Nisan they were redeemed; in Nisan they are destined to be redeemed.”

Therefore, the destruction of the Second Temple was rolled forward to the Ninth of Av, which was a liable day, as calamities had already multiplied on it.

They said: When the Temple was destroyed the

first

time, that day was the Ninth of Av ,

and it was the day after Shabbat

that is, Sunday,

and it was the end of

the

seventh year.

That is, it occurred in the eighth year, the year after the Sabbatical year.

And

And

the time

was the watch of Jehoiarib, and the Levites were reciting song, standing on their platform

the elevated place on which the Levites stood to sing.

And what

song were they reciting

at that time?

This verse from the Book of Psalms:

“He will bring their iniquity back upon them and destroy them in their evil.”

In fact, this is not the song fixed for Sunday, but the song of Wednesday. It fell into their mouths as a lament because of the event.

And they did not have time

the Levites

to recite

the words

“the Lord our God will destroy them,” before gentiles came—

and conquered them.

And likewise

it was

with the second

destruction of the Second Temple.

The Gemara continues to explain how we know that the events mentioned in the Mishna occurred on the Ninth of Av.

That

Betar was captured,

from where do we know that this occurred on the Ninth of Av?

It is a tradition.

That is, this is what we received as a tradition from our teachers.

We learned in our Mishna that

the city

of Jerusalem was plowed under on the Ninth of Av. As it is stated in the Book of Micah: “Zion shall be plowed as a field.” That is, it was entirely plowed until it became like a plowed field, and no indication remained that houses had previously stood there.

It was taught in a beraita: When

the wicked

Turnus Rufus destroyed the Sanctuary

, a decree was issued that Rabban Gamliel be put to death.

Some have the reading It might appear that the Sages said this without any hint in Scripture. But

That governor came

who had been appointed over this matter,

stood in the beit-midrash, and said: “The one with the nose is wanted; the one with the nose is wanted.” “The one with the nose”—that is, a person of stature and distinguished appearance.

By this he hinted that Rabban Gamliel was wanted to be killed. But he did not say so explicitly, lest the king’s men realize that he was conveying this information to Rabban Gamliel.

Rabban Gamliel heard

the statement and understood the hint,

and went and hid from them

he went and concealed himself from them.

The governor went to him secretly

the governor went to Rabban Gamliel privately and in secret.

He said to him: If I save you, will you bring me to the World to Come

if I save you from execution, will you bring me to life in the World to Come?

He said to him: Yes.

He said to him: Swear to me

swear to me concerning this.

He swore to him

Rabban Gamliel swore to him that he would indeed bring him to life in the World to Come.

He went up to the roof [

he ascended it, that hegemon, to the rooftop],

fell and died [

he threw himself down from there and died].

And it was transmitted [

and this was accepted tradition among the members of the monarchy]:

when they decreed a decree, and one of them died [

that is, if they issued a decree and at that time one of those who had conferred in order to issue that decree died]—

they would annul their decree [

they would cancel the decree]. This was because they believed that the calamity that befell them had occurred because they had done evil by issuing the decree.

Indeed, the decree was annulled, and they did not put Rabban Gamliel to death.

A Divine Voice emerged and said: That hegemon

who had saved Rabban Gamliel—

is destined [

prepared]

for life in the World-to-Come .

The Sages taught: When the Temple was destroyed for the

first

time, groups upon groups gathered [

in groups]

of the young men [

the young men]

of the priesthood, and the keys

of the gates of

the Sanctuary were in their hands.

They went up to the roof of the Sanctuary and said before Him [

before the Holy One, blessed be He]:

“Master of the Universe! Since we were not privileged to be trustworthy treasurers,

for the Temple has been destroyed—

let the keys be entrusted to You” .

And they threw them [

the keys]

upward.

And something resembling a hand emerged

from Heaven—

and received them from them [

and received the keys from them].

And they,

those young men of the priesthood,

leaped and fell into the fire [

into the flames].

And the prophet Isaiah lamented over them: “The burden of the Valley of the Vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, full of uproar? Your slain are not the slain of the sword, nor the dead of war.”

This is how we expound the verse:

“The Valley of the Vision” is Jerusalem , for all behold and gaze upon it. “That you have all gone up to the rooftops”—as we said, that those young men of the priesthood went up to the roof. “Your slain are not the slain of the sword, etc.”—for those priests were not killed in battle; rather, they killed themselves when they leaped into the fire.

This is also said of the Holy One, blessed be He:

He laments the destruction of the Temple, as it is stated later in that same verse:

“The wall cries out, and the cry goes up to the mountain” .

This is how the verse is expounded: “Cries out”—it is an expression of wailing. “The wall cries out” \-

the Master laments and cries out [“wall” is an expression for master] . That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, laments and cries out over the Temple on the Temple Mount, which was destroyed. We learned in our Mishna:

“From when Av enters, one diminishes rejoicing, etc.”

Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Shilat, said in the name of Rav: Just as when

the

month of

Av—

one diminishes rejoicing

, so too, when

the month of

Adar—

one increases rejoicing ,

because at that time miracles for Israel increased: in the month of Adar, the miracle of Purim, and in the month of Nisan that follows it, the miracles of Passover .