Tishah B’Av - A Day of Reflection
Tishah B'Av means "ninth of Av" and refers to a traditional Jewish day of fasting and mourning. Av corresponds to July or August of the secular year.
On Tishah B’Av, Feeling the Loss from the Flames
On Yom Kippur, we ask “Who by fire?” Sadly, this year at Tishah B’Av we already know who - the 19 firefighters who perished in Arizona.
An Absence of Color and Light: A Poem for Tishah B'Av
We sat among the willows,
and we wept,
there by the river
that flowed
clear and cold and swift,
--branches dancing,
barely dancing--
as they swayed
and swept the ground.
We stood among the weeping trees,
Prayers mixed with
visions of ash.
Why I Don't Mourn the Temple
My son’s birthday is in July. Last year, we sent out invitations to his bunkmates for a typical kindergartener’s birthday bash - pizza and ice cream cake at a moon-bounce place.
Catastrophe in America: Racism, Violence, & Tishah B'Av
I had a friend in college named Ray. He was a good guy. He had a lot of the qualities I thought I lacked when I was in college. Ray was good looking, athletic and charismatic. He was a running back on the school's football team.
The Work That Awaits Us
Last night, for the first time ever, I attended a Tishah B’Av study session – a joint venture between my own Temple Shaaray Tefila and O
I Remember: A Poem for Yom HaShoah
I remember the absence of sound,
deeper than silence
and more lonely,
like the moment just
before Creation,
all stretched and
attenuated, waiting,
except there was no time
to measure
eternity,
so waiting was
Now.
O the Chimney: On Forgiving Modern-Day Germany for the Shoah
Cafe Spindel is a quaint café in the center of Bad Segeberg, Germany that used to house a wool-processing factory. Because it was an unseasonably warm and sunny late summer day when I visited, our host, Pastor Martin Pommerening, suggested we sit outside.
Mourning Yom HaShoah with Jews Across the World
On Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2015 (Yom HaShoah), the entire Jewish community mourns the tragic loss of life, the genocide that occurred during World War II, which resulted in the death of an estimated six million Jews.
A Reflection on Yom HaShoah: What My Mother Taught Me About Spiritual Resistance
Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day (Yom HaShoah v’tag’vurah, commonly called Yom HaShoah) not only memorializes the six million Jews murdered but honors those Jews who took up arms against the Nazis.