Tisha B’Av is coming up on August 2, 2025, the Ninth of Av. It’s considered to be the saddest day in the Jewish year, marking both the destruction of the First Temple by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE, among other tragedies over millennia1.
On this day, we sit low, fast for about 25 hours, plug into ancient grief, and chant the Book of Lamentations or Eicha. Yet beneath the human mourning lies another layer which has been minimized … and that is the mourning of animals.
As we already know, the Temples in Jerusalem were not only centers of worship but centers of mass slaughter. Daily sacrifices included sin and peace offerings, communal tributes, and thousands upon thousands of animals on high holidays2. Josephus records that during Passover of 70 CE alone, more than a quarter million lambs were sacrificed at the brink of the Temple’s destruction3. As the city burned, priests continued in ritual slaughter even amid chaos, herding terrified animals into the smoke and fire.
Fast forward to today, our modern sacrifices are hidden. Animal suffering continues in factory farms, slaughterhouses, and laboratories at an alarming rate. These industry-sized altars generate no smoke we can see and no cries we can hear. But the victims remain just as voiceless as the animals offered millennia ago.
On Tisha B’Av, fasting strips us of comfort and forces us to confront loss. But what if that fast became more than abstention? What if it was also an act of refusal to harm? A refusal to perpetuate further suffering in the name of convenience or tradition.
Tisha B’Av is the perfect opportunity to replace modern sacrifice with true compassion. Choosing plant-based meals throughout the Three Weeks and especially on the Ninth of Av is a great way to start. You can also support sanctuaries where rescued animals live out their days in honor of the millions of animals slaughtered in Temple rituals.
Isaiah envisions a world where “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.” A Temple not for sacrifice, but a sanctuary for all beings.
As you fast this Tisha B’Av, let the ritual of mourning expand. Mourn and awaken … letting the emptiness speak for the voiceless.
What if rebuilding means transforming? What if the holiest altar we can build today is based in compassion? Not a Third Temple, but a world where no being is sacrificed for human desire.
In that world, perhaps true redemption begins … not with rebuilt stones, but with open hearts.
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