ALERT: Iran Deal Signed During Jewish Three Weeks of Mourning WR15-208

Friends, each year your Watchman monitors the Jewish three weeks of mourning culminating in the 9th and 10th of Av, the 25th and 26th of July on our calendar.  This year we did not make it successfully through the Jewish three weeks of mourning without a catastrophe. The Iran nuclear deal was announced during the three weeks of Jewish mourning On 14 July 2015. The 14th of July 2015 will go down as one of the worst dates in history. God help us, we are now on the precipice of war in the Middle East. The good news is, we are very close to the rapture of Christ's church. If you don't know Yeshua/Jesus and aren't saved, now is the time to be born again! Your time is quickly running out.

Tisha B'Av is the culmination of a three week period of increasing mourning, BEGINNING with the fast of the 17th of Tammuz.

Each year the Jews mourn for three weeks beginning on the 17^th of Tammuz and ending on the 9^th Av. In 2015 the 17^th of Tammuz began at sunset on the 4^th of July and the 9^th of Av ended at sunset the 26^th of July. Av is the 5th month on the Jewish lunar calendar.

……Should I weep in the fifth month (Av), separating myself, as I have done these so many years? Zechariah 7:3

Jews see this as another CONFIRMATION  of the deeply held conviction that history isn't haphazard; events – even terrible ones – are part of a Divine plan and have spiritual meaning. The message of time is that everything has a rational purpose, even though we don't understand it. 

1.   In the fifth month on the 10th day came Nebuzaradan and he burnt the house of the L-RD, Jeremiah 52:12-13

2. first breach in the walls of Jerusalem, before the First Temple was destroyed. During this three week period, weddings and other parties are not permitted, and people refrain from cutting their hair. From the first to the ninth of Av, it is customary to refrain from eating meat or drinking wine (except on the Shabbat) and from wearing new clothing.

The restrictions on Tisha B'Av are similar to those on Yom Kippur: to refrain from eating and drinking (even water); washing, bathing, shaving or wearing cosmetics; wearing leather shoes; engaging in sexual relations; andSTUDYING Torah. Work in the ordinary sense of the word [rather than the Shabbat sense] is also restricted.

3.   In the year is 1313 BC. The Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. But first they dispatch a reconnaissance mission to assist in formulating a prudent battle strategy. The spies return on the eighth day of Avand report that the land is unconquerable. That night, the 9th of Av, the people cry. They insist that they'd rather GO BACK to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites. Needless to say, God was highly displeased by this public demonstration of distrust in His power, and the Israelites lack of faith and consequently that generation of Israelites never ENTERS  the Holy Land. Only their children have that privilege, after wandering in the desert for another 38 years for a total of 40 years in the wilderness..Torah is kept) is draped in black.

Tisha B'Av is never observed on Shabbat. If the 9th of Av falls on a Saturday, the fast is postponed until the 10th of Av.

4.   The First Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Av (586 BC). Five centuries later (in 70 AD), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, ready to torch it, the Jews were shocked to realize that their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first.

5.   When the Jews rebelled against Roman rule, they believed that their leader,Simon bar Kochba, below,  would fulfill their messianic longings. But their hopes were cruelly dashed in 133 AD when the Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar. The date of the massacre? Of course—the 9th of Av!

Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman commander Turnus Rufus plowed the site of the Temple and the surrounding area, in 135 AD.

One year after their conquest of Betar, the Romans plowed over the Jewish Temple the Jewish nation's holiest site.

6.   The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 AD on, you guessed it,Tisha b'Av.

7.   In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain came to a close when Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand ORDERED  that the Jews be banished from the land. The  Alhambra Decree, the edict of expulsion was signed on March 31, 1492, and the Jews were given exactly four months to put their affairs in order and leave the country. 

8.   At midnight on the 9th of Av Columbus (Hebrew name Colon) sailed to the New World. The Hebrew date on which no Jew was allowed any longer to remain in the land where he had enjoyed welcome and PROSPERITY ? Oh, by now you know it—the 9th of Av.

Over time, Tisha B'Av has come to be a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for later tragedies. Regardless of the exact dates of these events, for many Jews, Tisha B'Av is the designated day of mourning for them.

 Other calamities associated with Tisha B'Av are below:

9.   The episode of the Golden calf, above, (17th of Tammuz) in which the Hebrews, after their exodus from Egypt, reintroduced idolatry as a form of spirituality.

10.       The First Crusade officially commenced on August 15, 1096 (Av 24, AM 4856), killing 10,000 Jews in its first month and destroying Jewish communities in France and theRhineland. 1.2 million Jews were killed by this crusade that started on the 9th of Av.

11.       The Jews were expelled from England on July 18, 1290 (Av 9, AM 5050).

12.       The Jews were expelled from France on July 22, 1306 (Av 10, AM 5066).

13.       The Jews were expelled from Spain on July 31, 1492 (Av 7, AM 5252).

14.       Germany entered World War I on August 1–2, 1914 (Av 9-10, AM 5674), which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to the Holocaust.

15.         On August 2, 1941 (Av 9, AM 5701), SS commander Heinrich Himmler, above,  formally received approval from the Nazi Party for "The Final Solution". As a result, the Holocaust began during which almost one third of the world's Jewish population perished.

16.       On July 23, 1942 (Av 9, AM 5702), began the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.

Most religious communities use Tisha B'Av to mourn the 6,000,000 Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

17.       AMIA bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, above,  killing 85 and injuring 300 on 18 July 1994; 10 Av, AM 5754.

18.       Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", or Hitnatkut, began 10 Av, AM 5765; 15 August 2005.