A Jewish community observance of Tisha B’Av will take place Saturday, Aug. 6 and Sunday, Aug. 7.
This is a time when tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout history on or near the 9th of Av are remembered. It is a somber day and a time for reflection focusing on themes of exile and alienation.
Advance registration for the community Tisha B’Av observances is required by Thursday, Aug. 4. Register online at https://forms.gle/DLHVctseR3dQtagv9 or click on the registration link at kcrabbi.org.
The observance will begin with an outdoor service on Saturday, Aug. 6, at 9:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom. If there is inclement weather, the service will be held indoors at the congregation. Outdoor seating will be available, and those who wish may bring blankets or lawn chairs.
There will be schmoozing and singing for those who wish to arrive at 9:15 p.m. A Tisha B’Av Maariv service and Havdalah will begin at 9:30 p.m. Participating clergy in this year’s Saturday evening observance are Hazzan Tahl Ben Yehuda (Congregation Beth Shalom), Rabbis Larry Karol, David Glickman (Beth Shalom), Scott White (retired from Ohev Sholom), Beryl Padorr (Beth Shalom) and Rachel Rothstein (The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah).
The observance includes study and the chanting of Eicha with English summaries from the Book of Lamentations which detail the destruction of Jerusalem through song and poems. The service will include beautiful, mournful melodies, engaging teaching, and a time for communal reflection on both painful times of our past and hope for our future.
The community Tisha B’Av observance will continue on Sunday, Aug. 7, at 5:00 p.m. at Kehilath Israel Synagogue with the viewing of the movie, "Lonely Man of Faith,” a documentary about Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, a rabbinic scholar of Yeshiva University, will be shown. The film addresses Modern Orthodoxy and how Rabbi Soloveitchik’s frustration and conflicts as a man of faith influenced the balance of tradition and tension with change.
After the movie, Rabbi Moshe Grussgott (Kehilath Israel Synagogue) will moderate a panel discussion with Rabbis Doug Alpert (Congregation Kol Ami), Mark Glass (Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner), Stephanie Kramer (B’nai Jehudah) and Hazzan Ben Yehuda (Beth Shalom). Panelists will reflect on the movie and discuss how their respective denomination navigates change. The panel discussion will be moderated by Rabbi Grussgott.
A Mincha service led by Rabbi Grussgott will begin at 8 p.m. and will be followed by a 10-minute Torah lesson and Maariv service. Conclusion of the fast will take place at 8:55 p.m. after which there will be a light breaking of the fast. Rabbi Grussgott is serving as the rabbinic coordinator for this program.
Hazzan Ben Yehuda of Congregation Beth Shalom shared some insights and reflections about this holiday:
“The 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av, is considered the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. For thousands of years, Jews have observed this day with a fast from sundown to dark the following day. This day is the day on which the 12 spies returned from spying out the land, and 10 of them gave such a disastrous report that the Israelites rent their clothing and began to mourn for themselves that God and Moshe had brought them out of Egypt to die.
“As a result, that day was marked on the Jewish calendar for disaster throughout the ages. On the 9th of Av, both the first and second Temples were destroyed. The Romans put down the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 C.E. with the death of 580,000 civilians. On the 9th of Av, Jews were expelled from England in 1290, banished from Spain in 1492, and World War I, ultimately the cause of World War II, began on Tisha B’Av when Germany declared war on Russia in 1914.
“When we learn about Tisha B'Av, we usually learn that this was the day that the Romans destroyed the Temple, ended the revolt and killed so many Israelites, and we ask ourselves, ‘Why should I observe this holiday at all anymore, now that there is a State of Israel, now that the Jewish people have a homeland once again?’
“To me, sitting in community with Jews from all our congregations, remembering that terrible night and so many other terrible nights since then, connects me to all those generations who suffered through those events. To sit outside in the dark and hear Eicha by candlelight evokes the vulnerability that we so rarely feel in our lives today. To take just one night and day out of the year to allow ourselves to viscerally remember that these were our ancestors whose lives were imperiled by the Babylonians, Romans, and so many European nations over the millennia also enables us to do what the 9th of Av also demands of us: to recognize that we are in the lowest depths of despair, and that from that place, hope and rising up is inevitable.
“It is only when we allow ourselves to feel the utter destruction and vulnerability that the 9th of Av opens us to that we are able to feel truly grateful, connected, hopeful and purposeful in our approach after the 9th of Av to the moments of redemption, both personal and communal, that I am already looking forward to for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”
For more information, visit kcrabbi.org or contact Annette Fish, Rabbinical Association Administrator/Program Director, at or 913-327-8226.
