One who ignores the mourning of Tishah B’Av, in effect, vindicates Eisav’s destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh and is therefore the same as someone who eats the gid hanosheh, dislocated by the destroyer of the Bais Hamikdosh.Īlong these lines, Rav Zev Hoberman zt”l (Ze’ev Yitrof, Tisha B’Av, page 131) contrasts the fasts of Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur.

The first Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed by Rome, which is the continuation of Edom, the descendent of Eisav. Rav Dovid Cohen (Birchas Yaavetz 3:312) understands the source for this connection to be the fact that the angel who wounded Yaakov Avinu was the heavenly protector of Eisav. My own rebbi, Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l (Pachad Yitzchok, Chanukah, maamar 5), based upon the Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 47:4), sees the danger to Klal Yisroel that emerged from Yaakov Avinu’s injury, following the rule of maaseh avos siman labonim, as the generations of shmad, spiritual destruction through false religions, philosophies and intermarriage. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichos Shlomo, Moadei Hashanah, page 415) understands the “dislocation” of the gid hanosheh as representing “our dislocation from Hashem,” as happened on both Tisha B’Avs, when we were alienated from Hashem because of various sins and sent away from His presence. The Zlotchover Rebbe (Orach Lechaim, Bereishis, page 78) sees the gid hanosheh as representing all excesses of the body and all forbidden pleasures. Just as in time (shanah), Tisha B’Av represents the nadir, or lowest possible moment, so in nefesh (the body of a living being), the lowest part is the gid hanosheh. In each dimension, there are lofty elevations of holiness and lowly manifestations of evil. What is the inner meaning and message between Tisha B’Av and the gid hanosheh? The Me’or Einayim (Vayeitzei, page 75) refers to the famous abbreviation that the word ashan (ayin, shin, nun), meaning smoke, stands for the three dimensions of the world olam (world or space), shanah (year or time) and nefesh (soul or human beings). Many meforshim add that the Zohar means that the Hebrew letters alef and tof, which comprise the word es, stand for Tisha Av. The Zohar concludes that we derive this understanding from the word es, in the posuk “therefore the children of Yisroel shall not eat es the gid hanosheh. This issur, which flows from the one place where the Samael was able to wound Yaakov Avinu, is deeply connected to Tisha B’Av, the one day of the year when the powers of evil were able to destroy the Bais Hamikdosh.” As if all of this was not enigmatic enough, the Zohar (Vayishlach 170b) teaches us that “one who eats on Tisha B’Av is considered to be as one who ate the gid hanosheh.” The Zohar goes on state that “there are 365 sinews in the body, corresponding to the 365 prohibitions in the Torah and the 365 days in the solar year. This part of the body, which rests on the hip, is often translated as “the displaced sinew.” The Torah (Bereishis 32:33) declares that this part of an animal’s anatomy, sometimes identified as the sciatic nerve, will be forbidden to us because the angel who fought with Yaakov Avinu dislocated it, causing Yaakov Avinu to be temporarily disabled. The third mitzvah in the Torah, after the basic ones to procreate and populate the world and that of bris milah, is to refrain from eating the gid hanosheh. It is the saddest day of the Jewish year, when both Botei Mikdosh were destroyed, yet it is called a mo’ed, a kind of Yom Tov, when no Tachanun is recited.Īnother paradox is its relationship with one of the earliest prohibitions in the Torah. There are several mysteries about the Ninth of Av.

Gid hanasheh meaning