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"Tisha b'Av"

08/23/2023 09:54:46 PM

Aug23

Rabbi Weill

Dear Friends,

Today is a dark day - the darkest - on the Jewish calendar: Tisha b’Av, the Ninth of Av. On this day, according to tradition, calamities befell the Jewish people, including, most prominently, the destruction of the first and second Temples. And so today we fast. Besides Yom Kippur, it is the only full-day fast of the year.

But Jewish tradition is irrepressibly optimistic. For us, faith in a better future eclipses the struggles of the past. And though we keen laments at Tisha b’Av services, we conclude those services with Ha’Tikvah, Israel’s national anthem. It means “the hope.”

On this Tisha b’Av, may our hopes eclipse our woes and may light dispel all darkness. 

Amen and Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jeffrey Weill

July 27, 2023

Sun, May 5 2024 27 Nisan 5784