TODAY IS THE NINTH OF AV, the traditional anniversary of the destruction of both temples, the fall of Betar during the Bar Kokhba revolt, and other disastrous days in Jewish history. It's the culmination of three weeks of annual mourning of these events.

Here are some randomly gathered links of relevance. The Orthodox Union website has more information on the holiday. Here's an article on it in Greenwich Time. This is a Biblical Archaeology Review article by Hanan Eshel on the archaeology of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Meredith Scheck has some very modern meditations on the nine days of mourning in her new blog ReJew. And, via Protocols (which also has been commenting off-and-on on the Ninth of Av and the preceding days of mourning - keep scrolling up to today), here's a live webcast for Tisha B'Av, again from the Orthodox Union, and an audio address from the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The former also includes a link to a PDF file of Talmudic material on the fall of the Second Temple.

A healthy fast to my Jewish readers.