There are five prohibitions typical to major fast days observed on Tisha B’Av: eating and drinking, washing, anointing, marital relations, and wearing leather shoes. However, in the Gemara’s discussion of Tisha B’Av in Ta’anit 30a, these abstentions are contextualized not as stemming from the day’s character as a major fast, but rather due to the day being one of mourning, as the Gemara states: 

כל מצות הנוהגות באבל נוהגות בט’ באב אסור באכילה ובשתיה ובסיכה ובנעילת הסנדל ובתשמיש המטה.

All prohibitions observed by a mourner are observed on the Ninth of Av: Eating and drinking,1 anointing, wearing shoes, and marital relations. 

It is due to this that there is also a sixth prohibition listed that sets Tisha B’Av apart from other fasts, that of learning Torah. In no uncertain terms, the Gemara says:

ואסור לקרות בתורה בנביאים ובכתובים ולשנות במשנה בתלמוד ובמדרש ובהלכות ובאגדות אבל קורא הוא  ... בקינות באיוב ובדברים הרעים שבירמיה ... משום שנאמר (תהלים יט:ט) פקודי ה’ ישרים משמחי לב.

It is forbidden to read the Torah, Nevi’im, or Ketuvim, or learn Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, Halakhah, and Aggadah . . . however, one may read Eichah, Iyov, and the bad parts of Yirmiyahu . . . for it says, “The orders of God are straight, gladdening the heart” (Tehilim 19:9).2

The Shulchan Arukh codifies this, and further specifies what material may or may not be learned; commentaries and midrashim on Eichah and Iyov are also allowed, but the verses of consolation among the dire prophecies of Yirmiyahu must be skipped.3 Only material that is likely to sadden and depress should be studied.

Despite this injunction, there are two occasions on Tisha B’Av where Torah learning is publicly conducted. The first is in the evening when Eichah is read, and the second is in the morning service when the Torah is read. Eichah deals with the raw pain and grief over the catastrophic loss of the Temple. The aforementioned Gemara states explicitly that learning Eichah is permitted, and a cursory glance at its heart-wrenching content proves why. Much harder to justify, however, is the Torah reading on Tisha B’Av morning. Public Torah reading is considered a form of Torah learning, and we would therefore expect the content of the morning Torah reading to be restricted to a morose or harrowing passage.4 The Torah reading for Tisha B’Av is taken from Devarim 4:25–40, referred to by its leading words, “Ki tolid banim,” “when you beget children.” While the first four verses of the section are highly unpleasant, describing the exilic consequence of idol worship, the remaining three-quarters of the reading is consoling, inspiring, and even downright cheerful. Ki tolid banim moves through a progression of the Jew in exile — he will seek God, find Him, return to Him, listen to Him. And God will remember the covenant, cease destroying the Jews, and rescue them from among the nations. He loved the forefathers, chose this people, and as long as they do good, He will give them the Land of Israel upon which they will dwell forever. How could we read something so promising on Tisha B’Av?

In case one would have thought we read this passage simply because we have no better choice, the Gemara in Megillah 31b, presents three other opinions for this Torah reading. The first is Vayikra 26:14. This section is commonly referred to as the tochachah, the rebuke. It is verse after verse of horrifying punishments for abandoning Torah. Words of hope are scant. Surely this is a better fit for the theme of the day! The other two suggestions of the Gemara, Bamidbar 14:11–25 or Bamidbar 14:26–46, also make a great deal of sense. They describe the fallout after the sin of the spies, which occurred on Tisha B’Av, and, according to Ta’anit 29a, was the impetus for God marking the Ninth of Av as a day when further tragedy would strike the Jewish people. So why does Megillah 31b, reject these three possibilities and instead settles on a passage that appears halakhically problematic, Ki tolid banim?

One could search Ki tolid banim for a grimmer message, one that would be more appropriate for Tisha B’Av. However, this seems remote, if not downright impossible. These verses are imbued with such a distinct tone of positivity. Therefore, the answer must be that there is a compelling enough reason to permit a feeling of comfort and joy on an otherwise somber day. 

Tisha B’Av feels fundamentally different from the other three fasts observed in remembrance of different stages of the Temple’s destruction and the Jews’ exile (17 Tammuz, Tzom Gedalyah, and 10 Tevet). On those days, we speak of repentance, recite selichot, and invoke God’s Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. But on Tisha B’Av, we sit and sob. We recite kinnot to express our pain, but do not petition God to the same degree. We simply grieve. This grief is important and it aims to stir our emotions so that we never forget Jerusalem, never forget what our obligations are, and how it is we distanced ourselves so much from our Creator. But there is also a danger to that grief. If we allow it to overwhelm our capacity for action too long, we will never fix our wrongs. God does not desire our fasting if it is not followed by concrete action.5 We are prohibited from learning any Torah we please on the day of Tisha B’Av because we must not distract ourselves from the severity of the day, but neither can we abandon hope and forget that we can, as Ki tolid banim says (4:29), seek out God with all our heart and soul. The ray of hope in the Torah reading, despite the general prohibition for Torah study, provides the appropriate framework in which we can get the most out of the day.

And perhaps it goes one step further. Ta’anit 30a, the source of the original prohibition of Torah study, cited a verse from Tehilim 19:9, “Pekudei Hashem yesharim mesamchei lev — The orders of God are straight, gladdening the heart.” The concern of learning anything other than the saddest pieces of Torah is that it would cause joy, an emotion that is overall inappropriate for Tisha B’Av. But in the proper framework of the morning Torah reading, we do, for a fleeting moment, experience the joy of learning Torah, of avodat Hashem, service of God, the joy of the promise of return contained in Ki tolid banim. And we understand that the joy, the simchah, the unfettered eagerness is that same feeling we yearn to experience in our return to Jerusalem. When we read of “lengthening your days on the land that Hashem, your God gives you, for all days” (4:40), we feel the joy that comes with it, and the despair that we do not have it now, and gain a great understanding for the directive of, “kol hamit’abel al Yerushalayim zocheh vero’eh besimchatah — Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem will merit to see it in its joy.”6 Speedily, in our days.

Notes

1 See Masoret HaShas on that Gemara, who notes that eating and drinking, while definitely prohibited on Tisha B’Av, is not listed as part of this discussion in the Gemara of the Rif and the Rosh, as mourners are obviously allowed to eat.

2 The verse from Tehillim implies that learning Torah makes one happy, which is forbidden on Tisha B’Av.

3 Orach Chaim 554:1-2.

4 In terms of public Torah reading serving as a vehicle for Torah learning, see, for example, Bava Kama 82a, where the Gemara explains that the public Torah readings on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat were instituted so that Jews would not go three consecutive days without learning Torah.

5 See, for example, Zechariah 7.

6 Ta’anit 29b.