Ab, Ninth Day of Ab, Fifteenth Day of I'Xlciisioucanbi'
tnued
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA in
tlxabstcntinn from iimrry-
Sdauucitatioii by K. .Moses So H. Isserli-s) and in otlier signs of mourning. MosL'S of Coney says that some do not use thf pliylac I erics on the Ninth Day of Ab (" Seinag." p. 24!tr>, a custom which later was universally observed. In this manner all customs originally designated as marks of unusual ]iiity finally became the rule for
iugut
til
is
season
((/'.
^5.-)l,
Shabbethai Zcbi abolished the Ninth of Ab in view of the same rabbinical legend [and the women in the East anoint themselves in the afternoon, because the Messiah is to be born on this day L. G.]. all.
—
129; also by Edward G. King in Jew. Quart. Hev." vii. 464. As long as the Jews were everywhere regarded as
1).
stnuigers and treated as such, the rights of citizenship being denied them, it was but natural that the Ninth Day of Ab should be observed as a day fif deep mourning, and that the season leading up to it should be full of gloom. Hut even then conlidence in the help of God and in the liiial victory of justice and truth was never lost; and the Sabbath immediately following this daj- was called " Sabbat h of Comfort" (Shabbat Nahmu), because the comfort-
SV.NAUOUl'E SKRVICK ON THE NINTH (From Bodeoachatt,
- '
In the liturgy the Book of Lamentations was, through many centuries, recited at the initiatory evening service. "The sorrow for departed glory would probably have been satisfied with these Biblical chapters if new sufterings had not constantly caused the production of fresh plaints" (Zunz, "Ritus,"p. 8b). Finally, the collection of plaintive songs (KixoT) for the day was expanded into Growth of an entire volume. Some of these songs Commem- are of superior poetic beauty and full of the finest religious sentiment esorative Hymns. pecially the ode to Zion by Judah ha-Levi. The best of the kiinit were translated by Jlrs. H. Lucas in "Jew. Quart. Rev." v. 652, and were reprinted in '"TheJcwi.sh Year,"
24
DAY OK
Ali.
Kircbliche Verfaasung.")
beginning with the words (Comfort j"c. comfort ye, etc.), was then read in the synagogues. The attitude of modern reformed Ju<laism toward event the Ninth Day of Reform it conmiemorates is Ab and the thus expressed l)y View. one of its leaders, David Einhorn ing message from Isa.
"Nahmu, nahmu."
xl.,
etc.
- Reformed Judaism t>eholds in the cessation of tlie saeriflcial
Ihe termination of a special nationality and the soat^ tering of tin* Jews among all nations the fundamental conditions for the fulfilment of their mission among mankind, (inly after the destruction of .Jerusalem was it ]>ossit)le for Israel (a a conception l)ecome a Icingdom of priests and a holy nation which even in the Talmud is intimated in the saying. "On the " day of the destruction of the Temple the Messiah was bom (" Ner Tamid," p. lOOt. ser*i('e
"
M. L.
