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On the ninth of the month of Av, we commemorate the destruction of the First Temple and roughly five hundred years later, on Tisha Be-Av, the Second Temple was also destroyed. About sixty-five years later, again on the ninth of Av, the Romans conquered the city of Beitar during the Bar Kokhba revolt and Jerusalem was razed to the ground.
More than a millennium earlier, when the Jews were wandering in the wilderness, the sin of the spies took place on the ninth of Av. This was a betrayal of the Land of Israel, as a result of which the entire generation was doomed to die in the wilderness. Only their children had the privilege of entering the Promised Land. As a result of the sin, the Talmud tells us that God said to the people: “You cried for nothing on this day, so I will make this a day of crying for all future generations. If you do not rectify the sin of the spies, the Temple will be destroyed on this day.” Since we did not correct this sin by settling the Land in accordance with the Torah’s guidance, both Temples were destroyed on Tisha Be-Av. (For more on the sin of the spies, see 15:22 above. For more on the impact of this sin on later generations, see 17:14.)
