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...
In 586 BCE the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and a large part of the Jewish community living in Eretz Israel was exiled to Babylonia. Normally, when a people is exiled to a foreign land, they get absorbed into society and disappear. Not so with us. If...
Yesterday, on Tisha B’Av, the organization “Bend The Arc” held a gathering on the steps of the Nassau County Legislature building in Mineola to request that Nassau County stop cooperating with ICE. Tisha B’Av is the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, when we...
Recent Comments