In “To Life, L’Chaim” from “Fiddler On The Roof,” the villagers of Anatevka sing, “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.” And as we head into Shabbat and Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, these lyrics certainly...
Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is a day of national and collective mourning for the Jewish people. On this date in 586 BCE and again in 70CE, Jerusalem, and her Holy Temples, were destroyed and the people exiled; first to Babylonia and then...
In Psalm 30 King David writes, ba-arev yalin bekhi, v’laboker rina, “tears may linger for a night, but joy comes the morning.” The author also blesses the God who “changed my mourning into dancing, my sackcloth into robes of joy, that I might sing praises...
This week’s Torah reading, Devarim, is always read on the Shabbat immediately preceding the observance of Tisha B’av, which begins as Shabbat ends on July 22nd. On this day we mourn the destruction of both of our holy temples and other calamities that have befallen...
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