The Romans set the Temple aflame on the afternoon of Av 9 (see yesterday's Today in Jewish History and it continued to burn through Av 10. For this reason, some of the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" are observed through the morning hours of Av 10 (see "Laws and Customs" below)
Arab terrorists exploded a bomb in the the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 86 and wounding more than 300, in the most lethal attack against any diaspora Jewish community since the Holocaust.
Link: Terrorism
More than 8,500 Jewish residents were forcefully expelled from their homes in 25 towns and settlements in the Gaza Strip (including 16 settlements in the flourishing "Gush Katif" belt) and Northern Shomron in the summer of 2005, as part of the Israeli government's ill-fated "Disengagement Plan."
Av 10 was the deadline set by the governments for all Jews to leave their homes in these areas. Two days later, tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers began the forceful removal of the thousands who refused to leave willingly. The removal of all Jewish residents from Gush Katif and the Gaza Strip was completed by Av 17, and from Northern Samaria a day later. The army completed its withdrawal from these areas on the 8th of Elul, after bulldozing all the hundreds of homes and civic buildings in the settlements. The Jewish dead were disinterred and removed from the cemeteries. Only the synagogues were left standing.
The government's hopes that the "disengagement" would open "new opportunities" in relations with the Palestinian Arabs were bitterly disappointed. No sooner had the last Israeli soldiers departed from the Gaza Strip that Arab mobs began looting, desecrating and tourching the synagogues. The vacated settlements became the staging grounds for terrorist attacks against Israel, including the unremitting rocket fire on the nearby Israeli town of Sederot and the cities and settlements of the Western Negev.
Links: The Gaza "Disengagement"
Issachar, the son of Jacob and Leah, ninth of the Twelve Tribes, was born on 10 Menachem Av in Haran. He lived to the age of 122. The tribe of Issachar was well-known for their Torah scholarship, producing many members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court.
In commemoration of the burning of the Temple which lasted into the 10th day of Av, we continue the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" (abstaining from meat and wine, music, recreational bathing, etc.--see "Laws and Customs" for "Av 1) until after mid-day.
In Torah, we mirror on earth that which G‑d performs on every plane of reality.
If so, since the Torah prohibits dislocating even a single stone of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, how could it be that G‑d brought the entire structure to ruins?
For it would certainly be absurd to imagine that the Assyrians or the Romans had the power to set fire to G-d’s house.
It must be that this was not an act of destruction. Rather, it was the initial phase of a much greater construction, one that would be eternally indestructible.
And for that to occur, the Temple had to be temporarily leveled to its foundations and G-d’s people had to be scattered to the furthest reaches of human habitation.
Why? Because as long as there is any place in this world that considers itself outside the realm of holiness, there remains a place for the destruction of G‑d’s Temple.
But in our exile, we meet face to face all that considers itself foreign to the divine. We grasp its reins, extract its poison, and channel its power.
This third and ultimate Temple, then, will be built of the outside turned inward, of darkness taught to shine, of the other converted to the One, of the most sinister enemy transformed to a faithful ally.
No opposition will remain in the universe. And so it will last forever.
Then we will see that in truth, there was never any destruction. There was only rebuilding, growth, and eternal, deep love.