Jewish prayers, fasting to mark destruction of Temple

JERUSALEM-Religious Jews in Israel and around the world began traditional prayers and fasting Monday to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second holy temples in Jerusalem.
Commemorated under the Hebrew calendar as the Ninth of Av,worshippers will gather Tuesday before the Wailing Wall,the last remaining vestige of the Second Temple,in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem which Israel captured in 1967.The Wailing Wall is the western edifice of the Temple built by King Herod and destroyed by the Romans in AD 70,when legions commanded by Titus laid siege to the city to crush Jewish rebels.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that"hundreds of police reinforcements will be deployed around the Wailing Wall and the old town of Jerusalem in order to protect worshippers."Today the Wall,revered by Jews as the holiest relic in world Judaism,abuts the Al Aqsa mosque compound which houses the Dome of the Rock,the world's third-holiest site for Muslims and built on the site of the Temple Mount.The Ninth of Av is considered one of the most catastrophic dates in the Jewish calendar,marking a multiple dose of woe.According to tradition,the First Temple in Jerusalem,built by King Solomon,was destroyed on the same day of the month in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar,king of Babylon.The date also commemorates the bloody defeat of the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 AD,and the 1492 expulsion order for Jews to leave Spain,handed down by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070723-022453-3110r
As in the days of Noah...