Hi John and all,

I would like to point out that the rising from the graves on the morning of Tish b'Av maybe the time of the rapture. Since this was the day each year that the Israelites would rise from their graves and also an appropriate time for the sudden destruction to happen since so many bad things have happened on this day!  It wasn't until they slept in their graves for six more days that they realized that the curse was over and was celebrated as Tu b'Av.  So they should have been able to rise on Tish b'Av morning and enter into the promised land.  So if we were to look at these two festivals then I think we should consider watching Tish b'Av more than Tu b'Av.  I am not saying it is the day, but seems to fit well.  We will know real soon!

"According to the Midrash, knowing their fate, each subsequent year the Israelites would dig their own graves before Tisha b’Av and then sleep in these graves on Tisha b’Av night. In the morning, they would get up and count who remained alive. And every time, they would find that 15,000 people had died. Finally, after 40 years had passed, the people again dug graves for Tisha B’Av, but in the morning everyone remained alive. Worried that they had gotten the date wrong, the people slept in their graves again the next night, and the next. Finally, after six nights had passed, they understood that their parents’ generation was entirely gone, and that everyone still alive would be allowed into the land. That day, according to Midrash, was Tu b’Av (15th of Av)"

David Blackman,