Haircuts, Shaving, Cutting Nails
1. The custom is to refrain from taking a haircut, including the beard. An adult may not even give a
haircut to a child.
2. Trimming the moustache is permitted if it interferes with eating. Combing and brushing the hair is
permitted.
3. A person who usually shaves daily (in a permitted manner) and would suffer business or financial
loss by not shaving, may do so until the 1st of Av, or until the Friday before Tisha B’Av. In any
case, one should consult Rabbi Rothman.
4. A married woman may remove hair that protrudes from under her hair covering, and facial or
bodily hair that may be considered unattractive.
5. Cutting the nails is permitted until the Friday before Tisha B’Av. Even then it is permitted for a
woman before immersion, or for a man as well, in honour of the Shabbat.

The Laws of the Nine Days
In addition to the restrictions that apply to the entire three-week period, during the nine days between the
1st of Av until after Tisha B’Av the following restrictions on pleasure and joy also take effect:

Activities of Pleasure and Joy
1. One should not purchase an “object of joy” that will be available after Tisha B’Av for the same
price.
2. Building for beauty or pleasure not required for dwelling should be suspended.
3. Building for a mitzvah like a synagogue, place of Torah study, or a mikva is permitted.
4. Painting, wallpapering and general home decoration should not be done.
5. Similarly, one should not plant for pleasure.

Eating Meat and Drinking Wine
1. The custom is to refrain from eating meat and poultry or drinking wine and grape juice during the
nine days. This also pertains to children.
2. The prohibition of meat includes foods cooked with meat or meat fat. However, foods cooked in a
clean vessel used for meat may be eaten.
3. Eating meat and drinking wine is permitted for Shabbat. Even one who has ushered in the Shabbat
on Friday afternoon before sunset, or extends the third meal of Shabbat into Saturday night may
also eat meat and drink wine at those times.
4. Similarly, one may drink the wine of Havdallah. Some have the custom to give the wine to a child
of 6-9 years old, or to use beer for Havdallah.
5. Meat and wine are also permitted at a meal in honour of a mitzvah like brit milah, redemption of
the first born, and completing a tractate (siyum) or other books.
6. A person who requires meat because of weakness or illness, including small children and pregnant
or nursing women who have difficulty eating dairy, may eat meat. However, whenever possible
poultry is preferable to meat.

Laundering
1. Laundering is prohibited even for use after Tisha B’Av. One may not even give clothing to a nonJewish cleaner. (One may send before the 1st of Av, even though he’ll wash during the nine days.)
2. The prohibition of laundering includes linens, tablecloths, and towels.
3. A person who has no clean clothes may wash what he needs until the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av.
4. Children’s diapers and clothing that constantly get dirty may be washed by need.
5. Laundering for the purpose of a mitzvah is permitted.
6. One should avoid shining shoes.

Wearing Freshly Laundered Clothing
1. It is forbidden to wear freshly laundered clothing during the nine days.
2. Therefore, one must prepare before the nine days by wearing freshly laundered suits, pants, shirts,
dresses, blouses and the like for a short time so that they may be worn during the nine days.
Socks, undershirts and underwear need not be prepared.
3. Here too, the prohibition of using freshly laundered items applies to linens, tablecloths, and
towels.
4. One may wear freshly laundered Shabbat clothing, as well as use clean tablecloths and towels.
Changing bed linen though is prohibited.
5. Since one may wear freshly laundered garments on Shabbat, if one forgot or was unable to
prepare enough garments before the nine days, he may change for Friday night and then change
again on Shabbat morning. These garments may then be worn during the week.
6. This will apply only to clothing that is suitable to wear on Shabbat, since wearing a garment on
Shabbat for the sole purpose of wearing it during the week is forbidden.
7. Fresh garments and Shabbat clothing may be worn in honour of a mitzvah for example at a brit
milah for the parents, mohel, and sandek.

Wearing, Buying and Making New Clothes, Repairing Garments
1. While wearing new clothing that doesn’t require the blessing “sh’hecheyanu” is permitted until
the 1st of Av, during the nine days it is prohibited even on Shabbat.
2. One may not buy new clothes or shoes even for use after Tisha B’Av, except in a case of great
necessity, for example for one’s wedding.
3. If one forgot or was unable to buy shoes needed for Tisha B’Av, he may do so during the nine
days.
4. Making new garments or shoes for a Jew is permitted until the Sunday before Tisha B’Av.
Afterwards it is permitted only for a non-Jew.
5. Repairing torn garments or shoes is permitted.

Bathing and Swimming
1. The custom is not to bathe for pleasure even in cold water.
2. Bathing in cold water for medical reasons or to remove dirt or perspiration is permitted.
3. Soaping or shampooing and washing with hot or warm water are prohibited - unless it is required
for medical reasons or to remove the dirt and perspiration.
4. Swimming is prohibited except for medical reasons.
5. Bathing for a mitzvah is permitted, therefore a woman who needs to bathe for her immersion
should consult Rabbi Rothman.
6. One who bathes every Friday in honour of Shabbat with hot water, soap and shampoo may do so
on the Friday before Tisha B’Av.

Today, why do we mourn for Jerusalem? How can a Jew weep on Tisha B'Av for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Beis Hamikdash which took place thousands of years ago, when he sees how beautifully Jerusalem has been rebuilt in our days?

Perhaps we can learn a lesson from Rabbi Gershon Kitover, brother-in-law of the Ba'al Shem Tov, who arrived in Jerusalem two and a half centuries ago with the first group of Chassidim to settle in the Holy Land.
He looked around at a city which sported foreign legations and all the signs of a serene community restored, in sharp contrast to the desolation described by Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban) in his famous letter reporting on his visit to the city some five centuries earlier.

Rabbi Gershon broke into tears. Now, he said, I fully understand the words of the prayer that Jews say at the end of the final ne'ilah service on Yom Kippur, when the gates of Heaven are about to close. As they stand at this dramatic moment, weakened in body from a long day of fasting and strengthened in spirit from prayer and repentance, they strive to send one more prayer heavenward, invoking the 13 attributes of Divine mercy. The opening lines, sounding more like a Tisha B'Av lamentation than a Yom Kippur prayer, cry out: "I recall, O G-d, and I am overcome by emotion, as I see every city solidly built on its foundation, while the City of G-d is reduced to the depth of the grave. Nevertheless, we are with G-d, our eyes are turned to G-d.”

Until Rabbi Gershon saw the rebuilt Jerusalem of his day, he assumed - as we all do - that the above lament contrasts a desolate Holy City with the mighty capitals of the world, Rome, Paris, London and Berlin. But when he saw the beginnings of a rebuilt Jerusalem and contrasted it with the ruins of the Beis Hamikdash he sensed a deeper meaning in those words: 'Every city' - said Rabbi Gershon - refers to the Jerusalem of Below, the city of brick and mortar; while the 'City of G-d' refers to the Jerusalem of Above, the heavenly city characterized by the Beis Hamikdash.

It is certainly painful to contrast these ruins with the prosperity of foreign cities. But the pain is indescribably greater when one sees the contrast between material prosperity and spiritual ruin before his very eyes.  Small wonder that this great man of spirit, who realized his lifelong dream of reaching Jerusalem, was moved to tears when he sensed the awful contrast. 

The above account of Rabbi Gershon Kitover's experience and observation is recorded by one of the great halachic authorities, Rabbi Yosef Tumim, who served as rabbi of Frankfort, Germany two centuries ago. In his classic commentary on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, quotes his father as the source for this moving story about Rabbi Gershon Kitover.

A footnote to this is the sentiment expressed in the last line of the above mentioned prayer - "Nevertheless, we are with G-d and our eyes are turned to G-d." This sense of hope amidst mourning reminds us of the story of a father who took his young son to the Western Wall for the first time. It was Tisha B'Av, and
the youngster asked his father why grown men were weeping. "Here," said the father, "our Beis
Hamikdash once stood. The Temple Mount on which it stood was surrounded by four large walls. Now the Beis Hamikdash is destroyed, as well as the walls around the Har Habayis. All we have left of all our sacred glory is this one wall where you see people praying. Is it any wonder that they cry when they remember what once stood here?” "But Father," responded the son, "isn't it true that Mashiach will soon come to
redeem us, rebuild the Beis Hamikdash and the four walls around Har Habayis?  We should take comfort in the fact that one of those walls is already standing, and there are only three more to go!"

In the future, to that same degree that the ninth of Av has been a day of tragedy, it will be a day of great happiness. For on the 9th of Av, the Mashiach will be born from the tribe of Yehuda (whose symbol is the lion). His coming will wipe the tear from every eye.