(19) Thus said GOD of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month, the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month, shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah; but you must love honesty and integrity.

(1) And in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army. He besieged it; and they built towers against it all around. (2) The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. (3)By the ninth day [of the fourth month] the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people. (4)Then [the wall of] the city was breached. All the soldiers [left the city] by night through the gate between the double walls, which is near the king’s garden—the Chaldeans were all around the city; and [the king] set out for the Arabah. (5) But the Chaldean troops pursued the king, and they overtook him in the steppes of Jericho as his entire force left him and scattered. (6) They captured the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah; and they put him on trial. (7) They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then Zedekiah’s eyes were put out. He was chained in bronze fetters and he was brought to Babylon. (8)On the seventh day of the fifth month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. (9)He burned the House of GOD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person. (10) The entire Chaldean force that was with the chief of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. (11) The remnant of the people that was left in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon—and the remnant of the population—were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards. (12) But some of the poorest in the land were left by the chief of the guards, to be vinedressers and field hands. (13) The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of GOD, the stands, and the bronze tank that was in the House of GOD; and they carried the bronze away to Babylon. (14) They also took all the pails, scrapers, snuffers, ladles, and all the other bronze vessels used in the service. (15) The chief of the guards took whatever was of gold and whatever was of silver: firepans and sprinkling bowls. (16) The two columns, the one tank, and the stands that Solomon provided for the House of GOD—all these objects contained bronze beyond weighing. (17) The one column was eighteen cubits high. It had a bronze capital above it; the height of the capital was three cubits, and there was a meshwork [decorated] with pomegranates about the capital, all made of bronze. And the like was true of the other column with its meshwork. (18) The chief of the guards also took Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the deputy priest, and the three guardians of the threshold. (19) And from the city he took a eunuch who was in command of the soldiers; five of the royal privy councillors who were present in the city; the scribe of the army commander, who was in charge of mustering the people of the land; and sixty of the common people who were inside the city. (20) Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. (21) The king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death at Riblah, in the region of Hamath.
Thus Judah was exiled from its land. (22)King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon put Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan in charge of the people whom he left in the land of Judah. (23) When the officers of the troops and their men heard that the king of Babylon had put Gedaliah in charge, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah with Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maachite, together with their men. (24) Gedaliah reassured them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.” (25)In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men, and they struck down Gedaliah and he died; [they also killed] the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were present with him at Mizpah. (26) And all the people, young and old, and the officers of the troops set out and went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans. (27) In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, took note of King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. (28) He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above those of other kings who were with him in Babylon. (29) His prison garments were removed, and [Jehoiachin] received regular rations by his favor for the rest of his life. (30) A regular allotment of food was given him at the king’s behest—an allotment for each day—all the days of his life.

The mishna discusses the five major communal fast days. Five calamitous matters occurred to our forefathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five other disasters happened on the Ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken by Moses when he saw that the Jews had made the golden calf; the daily offering was nullified by the Roman authorities and was never sacrificed again; the city walls of Jerusalem were breached; the general Apostemos publicly burned a Torah scroll; and Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary.On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed, as a sign that it would never be rebuilt.

Not only does one fast on the Ninth of Av, but from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing.

(2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

(16) God made the two great lights, the big light to dominate the day and the little light to dominate the night, and the stars.

(14) God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years;

Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi raises a contradiction between two verses. It is written: “And God made the two great lights” (Genesis 1:16), and it is also written in the same verse: “The big light to rule the day, and the little light to rule the night,” indicating that only one was great.

Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi explains:
When God first created the sun and the moon, they were equally bright. Then, the moon said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: "Master of the Universe, is it possible for two kings to serve with one crown? One of us must be subservient to the other."
God, therefore, said to her [the moon]: "If so, go and diminish yourself."
She said before Him: "Master of the Universe! Since I made a correct observation before You, must I diminish myself?"

God said to her: "As compensation, go and rule both during the day along with the sun and during the night."
She said to Him: "What is the greatness of shining alongside the sun? What use is a candle in the middle of the day?"

God said to her: "Go; let the Jewish people count the days and years with you, and this will be your greatness."
She said to Him: "But the Jewish people will count with the sun as well, as it is impossible that they will not count seasons [tekufot] with it, as it is written: “And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).

God said to her: "Go; let righteous men be named after you. Just as you are called the lesser [hakatan] light, there will be Ya’akov HaKatan, i.e., Jacob our forefather (see Amos 7:2), Shmuel HaKatan the Tanna, and David HaKatan, i.e., King David (see I Samuel 17:14)."

God saw that the moon was not comforted.
The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Bring atonement for me, since I diminished the moon. The Gemara notes: And this is what Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: What is different about the goat offering of the New Moon, that it is stated with regard to it: “For the Lord” (Numbers 28:15)? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: This goat shall be an atonement for Me for having diminished the size of the moon.

(11) On your new moons you shall present a burnt offering to ה׳: two bulls of the herd, one ram, and seven yearling lambs, without blemish. … (15) And there shall be one goat as a sin offering of ה׳, to be offered in addition to the regular burnt offering and its libation.

May it be your will, Lord my God and God of my ancestors, to fill the flaw of the moon so that it is no longer in its diminished state. May the light of the moon be like the light of the sun and like the light of the seven days of creation as it was before it was diminished, as the verse states, "the two great luminaries".

(7) that the righteous may flourish in his time,
and well-being abound, till the moon is no more.

Another interpretation: “This month shall be for you [the first of months]” (Exodus 12:2) – that is what is written: “In his days let the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more” (Psalms 72:7).

Before the Holy One blessed be He took Israel out of Egypt, He made it known to them by allusion that their royalty would endure for them for thirty generations, as it is stated: “This month shall be for you the first of months.” The month is thirty days, and your royalty will be thirty generations.

On the first of Nisan, the moon begins to shine, and it gradually increases its light until the fifteenth day, and its orb becomes full. From fifteen until thirty days, its light wanes, and on the thirtieth it is not seen.

So Israel, for fifteen generations from Abraham until Solomon. Abraham began to give light, as it is stated: “Who has risen from the east, righteousness attends his footsteps” (Isaiah 41:2). Isaac came, and he also gave light, as it is stated: “Light is sown for the righteous” (Psalms 97:11). Jacob came and added light, as it is stated: “The light of Israel shall be fire” (Isaiah 10:17). And then Judah, Peretz, Ḥetzron, Ram, Aminadav, Naḥshon, Salmon, Boaz. Oved, Yishai, David.

When Solomon came, the orb of the moon became full, as it is stated: “Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king” (I Chronicles 29:23). …The garb of the Holy One blessed be He is majesty and glory, and He granted Solomon royal majesty, as it is stated: “He bestowed upon him royal majesty” (I Chronicles 29:25). …

The orb of the moon thereby became full, and from there the kings began diminishing: “The son of Solomon, Reḥavam” (I Chronicles 3:10), the son of Reḥavam, Aviya, his son Asa, Yehoshafat, Yehoram, Ahaziah, Yoash, Amatzyahu, Uzziah, Yotam, Hezekiah, Menashe, Amon, Josiah, Yehoyakim. When Zedekiah came, as it is written: “He blinded the eyes of Zedekiah” (Jeremiah 52:11), the light of the moon was lacking.

All those years, even though Israel was sinning, the patriarchs were praying for them and making peace between Israel and the Omnipresent, as it is stated: “Let the mountains bear peace to the people” (Psalms 72:3), and the mountains are nothing other than the patriarchs, as it is stated: “Hear, O heights, the Lord’s grievance” (Micah 6:2). Until when were the patriarchs praying for them? Until Zedekiah lost his eyes and the Temple was destroyed, as it is stated: “And abundance of peace, until the moon is no more,” until thirty generations that Israel had royalty.

Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Tanḥum ben Rabbi Ḥiyya and Rabbi Pinḥas in the name of Rabbi Simon said: After He calls them [both] great, He goes ahead and diminishes them, [saying] “The greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night”? (Genesis 1:16). This is bewildering.
… [counterpart theory]
Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Yosei bar Ilai: It is only proper for the greater [older] one to count by the greater thing, and the smaller [younger] one to count by the lesser thing. Esau counts [its years] by the sun, which is the greater, and Jacob counts [its years] by the moon, which is the lesser.

Rav Naḥman said: And this is a good portent. Esau counts by the sun, which is the greater. Just as the sun has dominion during the day and has no dominion at night, so Esau has a share in this world and has no share in the World to Come. Jacob counts by the moon, which is lesser. Just as the moon has dominion during both night and day, so Jacob has a share in both this world and in the World to Come.

Rav Naḥman said: As long as the light of the greater one is in existence, the light of the lesser one is not discernible. When the light of the greater one recedes, the light of the lesser one is discernible. So, too, as long as the light of Esau is in existence, the light of Jacob is not discernible. When the light of Esau will recede, the light of Jacob will be discernible. That is what is written: “Arise, shine, for your light has come…. For, behold, the darkness will cover the earth, [and thick darkness the peoples, but upon you the Lord will shine and His glory will be seen upon you]” (Isaiah 60:1–2).

Ya'akov is called small and his calendar is based on the small luminary (the moon, literally "the white one"). Edom (Esav) is called red, his food is red, his land is red, his warriors are red, his clothing is red... because Esav receives his strength from the sun which is red.

Discussing Sinai, and the image of the mountain being suspended over the people with the threat that if they don’t accept the Torah this place will become their grave. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

…If one reads from a Megilla that was written not with ink but with sam or with sikra or with komos or with kankantom, or from a Megilla that was written not on parchment but on neyar or on diftera, a kind of unprocessed leather, he has not fulfilled his obligation. He does not fulfill his obligation unless he reads from a Megilla that is written in Ashurit, i.e., in the Hebrew language and using the Hebrew script, upon parchment and with ink.

(1)One who reads the Megilla may position himself as he wishes, either standing or sitting. Whether one person reads the Megilla or two people read it together, they have fulfilled their obligation. In a place where the people are accustomed to recite a blessing over the reading, one should recite a blessing. And in a place where it is customary not to recite a blessing, one should not recite a blessing.

The mishna records several laws governing public Torah readings. On Mondays and Thursdays during the morning service and on Shabbat during the afternoon service, three people read from the Torah; one may neither decrease the number of readers nor add to them. And one does not conclude with a reading from the Prophets [haftara] on these occasions. Both the one who begins the reading and the one who concludes the reading from the Torah recite a blessing; one recites before the beginning of the reading and one recites after its conclusion, but the middle reader does not recite a blessing.