7 years & Beyond: History

These commemorative times are from events in Jewish history. They are mentioned in scripture; however they are not as well known as the main Festivals, appointed times.

Tisha B`Av - Mourning.  17th of Tammuz - 9th of Av)

This is a Three Week annual mourning period that falls out in the summer, from 17th day of Tammuz to the 9th Av. This is when Israel mourns the destruction of the Holy Temple and the launch into a still ongoing exile.

Israel remembers the time when the Babylonians destroyed Solomon`s Temple in 586 B.C.  The walls of Jerusalem were breached on the 17th day of Tammuz (the fourth month).     (2 Kings 25: 3 - 4)

 A few weeks later after all the executions and deportments were sorted out, the captain of the Babylonian army finished his directive. Beginning on the seventh of Av and continuing through the tenth of Av, he set his army on a burning rampage. They stripped the breathtaking Temple of all it gold, silver and brass. Finally, they reduced to ashes the house which the Lord had chosen to call His own. (Zech. 7: 3 & 5,  8: 19 mourning)

But the tragic sage was to continue. Six centuries later, Israel repeated her sins with the same disastrous results. This time Israel rejected its Messiah. And on the ninth day of Av A.D. 70 the glorious rebuilt Temple was destroyed by the Romans.

Hanukkah - Rededication. (25th of Kislev - 2nd of Tevet)

This feast commemorates the rededication of the Temple in 164 B.C. On Hanukkah the Jews celebrate the expulsion of the Syrians by Judas Maccabeus and the cleansing and rededication of the Jerusalem Temple, which the Syrians had desecrated. Lighting a new candle each day for eight days, the Jews commemorate the miracle of the Temple`s holy candelabrum: for the rededication they had only one day`s worth of consecrated oil but it burnt for eight full days, the time required to consecrate more oil.

It is celebrated on the 25thday of Kislev through to the 2nd of Tevet, 8 days.(Ez. 43: 26 & 27) It was at this Feast of Dedication that the Jews wanted to know if He was the Messiah. (John 10: 22 - 24)

Purim - National Deliverance & Celebration. (14th and 15th of Adar)

This Feast celebrates the failure of Haman`s plot to destroy the Jews. It is a time of feasting and joy when the people celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from death through the bravery of the Jewish Queen Esther of Persia. (Esther 9: 21,  27 - 28)

It is celebrated on the 14th of Adar in the country and on the 15th of Adar (last month) in Jerusalem.