On the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, known as Tish’a B’Av, the Jewish people commemorate the destruction of the first and second Jewish temples in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and A.D. 70, respectively, as well as other calamities that befell the Jewish people on the same day in history. It is designated as a time of mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temple and, with it, the loss of the priestly sacrificial system. Please pray that in the same way that the Samaritan woman had an encounter with Jesus in John 4, many Israeli Jews will have an encounter with the Messiah as, on this day, they “humble themselves, and pray and seek [God’s] face” (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV). Jesus spoke of something beyond the temple when He said: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23 ESV).