Av (month)

This article is about the Hebrew month. For the abbreviation AV or aV, see AV.

Av
Month number	11
Number of days	30
Season	summer
Gregorian equivalent	July-August

Av (Hebrew: אָב, Standard Av Tiberian ʾĀḇ ; from Akkadian abu) is the eleventh month of the civil year and the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. The name is Babylonian in origin and appeared in the Talmud around the 3rd century. This is the only month which is not named in the Bible. It is a summer month of 30 days. Av usually occurs in July–August on the Gregorian calendar.

In the Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 29a, we read "When we enter [the month of] Av, our joy is diminished". This is due to the fact that the darkest events in Jewish history occurred during the first week and a half of this month, particularly The Nine Days which culminate in Tisha B'Av. However, there is a minor and largely unknown holiday during the full moon of the month called Tu B'Av which was, in ancient times, one of the happiest days of the year.

In 1290 – on the 9th day of Av, which is the same day that the Temple in Jerusalem was twice destroyed, and which is therefore the worst day in Jewish history – the Jews were expelled from Israel and not permitted to return for almost four centuries.

The month is also sometimes referred to as Menachem Av (Hebrew: מנחם אב) (Av of Comfort), but most only use this title in the sanctification of the month recited on the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh and following Tisha B'Av.

Holidays in Av

Av 9 -Fast of Tisha B'Av - (fast day)
Av 15 - Tu B'Av

Av in Jewish history

1 Av - (1273 BCE) - Death of Aaron

• Aaron the first High Priest, brother of Moses and Miriam, died at the age 123 on the 1st of Av of the Hebrew year 2488 (1273 BCE). This is the only yahrzeit (date of death) explicitly mentioned in the Torah (Numbers 33:38).

1 Av - (348 BCE) - Ezra and Followers Arrived in Israel

• Following their journey from Babylon (see Jewish history for the 12th of Nissan), Ezra and his followers arrived in the land of Israel so they could be near the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

5 Av - (1572) - Death of "Ari"

• Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, known as Ari HaKadosh ("The Holy Lion") died on the 5th of Av of the Hebrew year 5332 (1572 CE). Born in Jerusalem in 1534, he spent many years in secluded study near Cairo, Egypt. In 1570 he settled in Sefad, where he lived for two years until he died at age 38. During that brief time, Ari would change the study of Kabbalah, and had come to be considered one of the most important figures in Jewish mysticism.

7 Av - (423 BCE) - First Temple Invaded

• After a month of fighting in Jerusalem (see "Tammuz in Jewish History" for Tammuz 9), the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia broke through, into the Temple, where they feasted and vandalized until the afternoon of Av 9, when they set the Holy Temple aflame.

7 Av - (67 CE) - Civil War in Jerusalem

• Fighting breaks out inside the besieged city of Jerusalem between different Jewish factions divided on the question of whether or not to fight the Roman armies who had encircled the city. One group set fire to the city's food stores, which is said to have quicked starvation. Jerusalem fell three years later.

9 Av - (423 BCE and 69 CE) - Holy Temples Destroyed

• The first and second Holy Temples which stood in Jerusalem were both destroyed, Av 9. The First Temple by the Babylonians in the Hebrew year 3338 (423 BCE), and the Second Temple by the Romans in 3829 (69 CE). The Temples' destruction represented the beginning of Galut (exile).

9 Av - (133 CE) - Fall of Betar

• Betar, the last stronghold of the Bar Kochba rebellion, fell to the Romans on the 9th of Av of the Hebrew year 3893 (133 CE) after a three-year siege. 580,000 Jews are said to have died by either starvation or the sword, including Bar Kochba, the leader of the rebellion.

9 Av - (1290) - Expulsion from England

• The Jews of England were expelled by King Edward I on the 9th of Av in 1290

9 Av - (1492) - The Spanish Inquisition

• The Jews of Spain were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella on the 9th of Av of 1492, destroying many centuries of Jewish life in that country.

10 Av (69 CE) - Holy Temple burns

• The Romans set the Temple on fire on the afternoon of Av 9. For this reason, the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" are observed through the morning hours of Av 10.

10 Av - (1994) - AMIA Bombing

• Arab terrorists exploded a bomb in the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 86 and wounding more than 300. This was the most lethal attack against any diaspora Jewish community since the Holocaust.

10 Av - (2005) - Expulsion from Gaza

• 8,500 Jewish residents were forcefully removed from their homes in 25 towns and settlements in the Gaza Strip (including 16 settlements in the "Gush Katif" belt) and Northern Shomron in the summer of 2005, as part of the Israeli government's, Disengagement Plan.

12 Av - (1263) - Nachmanides' disputation

• King James I of Aragon (Spain) ordered Nachmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 1194-1270) to participate in a public debate, held in the king's presence, against the Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. His defense of Judaism and refutations of Christianity's claims served as the basis of future disputations through the generations. Because his victory was an insult to the king's religion, Nachmanides was forced to flee Spain and came to Jerusalem.

13 Av - (1885) - Death of Sir Moses Montefiore

• Av 13 is the day Sir Moses Montefiore died at age 101. He was a famed philantropist and Jewish advocate. (1784-1885).

15 Av - (148 CE) - Betar dead buried

• The Betar fortress was the last holdout of the Bar Kochba rebellion. Betar fell on the 9th of Av, Hebrew year, 3893 (133 CE), Bar Kochba and many thousands of Jews were killed by the Romans. Afterwards, the Romans would not allow the Jews to bury their dead for 15 years afterwards. The dead of Betar were brought to burial on Av 15 of the year Hebrew year 3908 (148 CE), an additional blessing (HaTov VehaMeitiv) was added to the "Grace After Meals" in their commemoration.

15 Av - Tu B'Av

• In ancient Israel, it was the custom that on the 15th of Av "the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed linen garments... and dance in the vineyards" and "whoever did not have a wife would go there" to find himself a bride (Talmud, Taanit 31a). The reason they would wear borrowed linen garments was so those without nice clothes of their own wouldn't be embarrassed)

15 Av - The Day of the Breaking of the Ax

• When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, there was an annual cutting of firewood for the altar. This was concluded on the 15th of Av. The event was celebrated with feasting and rejoicing, as is the custom upon the conclusion of any holy doing, and it included a ceremonial breaking of the axes which is what gave the day its name.

17 Av - (1929) - Hebron Massacre

• 67 Jewish men, women and children were killed, and man others wounded, raped and maimed, by their Arab neighbors in the city of Hebron. The Arabs rioted for three days yelling out cries to "Slaughter the Jews." The survivors fled to Jerusalem, this destroyed the ancient Jewish community of Hebron, which had lived in relative peace in the city for hundreds of years until after Israel's capture of Hebron in the 1967 Six Day War.

20 Av - (1558) - Zohar published

• On the 20th of Av, the first printing of the Zohar, a fundamental work of Kabbalah by the Talmudic sage, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

20 Av - (1944) - Death of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson

• Av 20 is the yahtzeit (anniversary of the death) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944), who died in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was the Chief Rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (now called Dnepropetrovsk), and was arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan by the Stalin regime because of his effort to preserve Jewish life in the Soviet Union.

21 Av - (1918) - Death of Rabbi Chaim Brisker

• Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk (1853-1918) died on this day. He was a famous Talmudic scholar and Jewish leader.

24 Av - (circa 100 BCE) - Hasmonean Holiday

• Sometime around 100 BCE, the Hasmoneans reinstated Jewish civil law which replaced the Hellenist secular law, and declared this day a holiday.

26 Av - (1843) - Tzemach Tzeddek departs Saint Petersburg

• In 1843, the Interior Ministry of the Czarist government in Russia had a rabbinical conference in the capital of Saint Petersburg. They wanted changes made to Jewish communal life and religious practice. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866) was invited as he was a leader of Russian Jewry. During the conference, government officials arrested him 22 times because he refused to comply. By the time he left on the 26th of Av, he had successfully prevented the government's disruption of traditional Jewish life.

Other uses

• In the story of Xenogears, Av is the name of a country, named after the Hebrew month. In the official Japanese version translation, however, it was transliterated Ave. This was later further changed by the translation process to Aveh for the English version.
• Ab (Arabic: آﺏ) is the name for the month of August in the Levant.

References

• This Month in Jewish History