As our hot, humid, relaxing and meaningful summer days continue to move forward, we are reminded that life for us, as the Jewish people during the summer was not always so perfect. The Ninth of Av otherwise known as “Tisha B’Av” which occurs Wednesday Evening, August 2nd and Thursday,August 3rd, is a twenty-five hour period where we as a people take a break from our relaxations, vacations and fun. We are commanded and taught to spend the day in reflection and mourning remembering the destructions of the First and Second Temples that once stood on the Temple Mount in our holy city of Jerusalem. Tisha B’Av is a day where we recite (with a melancholy tone) and read from the Scroll of Lamentations, Megillat Eikha. Tisha B’Av is a day of despair and sadness, which is represented through fasting, sitting on the floor during Evening and morning services and abstaining from the wearing of leather and the usage of perfumes, fancy soaps, etc.
When I was younger I probably would not have known much about Tisha B’Av had I not attended Camp Ramah in Ojai, California. It was there that I really learned a tremendous amount about what is called “the saddest day” on our Jewish calendar throughout the year. But at Camp Ramah in California, and within Judaism today Tisha B’Av has evolved and has obtained a different look and a different attitude. During the first part of Tisha B’Av at Camp, which included the evening and the morning after, our bodies and our souls were in a mournful state. Prayer was said and not sung, the group conversations and study opportunities throughout the evening and morning were about the struggles that Jews had throughout our periods of persecution, and fasting in very hot weather (it gets to be around 105 degrees in Ojai, California) was something that was certainly present and definitely felt.
However, after Mincha, the afternoon service, the rest of the day’s focus was on the rekindling of the Jewish people. Each age group created a project that we presented to the Camp in an evening ceremony (called a Tekes) at the end of Tisha B’Av. The ritual presented and explained that all of us help to create our community and that we as a Jewish people will continue to survive no matter what tries to stop us. We celebrated the existence of the modern state of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, which is the capital of our Jewish homeland. Some broke their fast at Mincha (including the Camp Rabbis) to share that it is time to move forward, that we have a Jewish State in our lives and that we must gain the “spiritual and physical” strength to not allow this to happen again.
As Tisha B’Av is upon us, we certainly must demonstrate through mourning and sadness what occurred to our people, but we also have the obligation in memory of those who have fought for our existence and for ourselves, to rekindle the light and the spark of the Jewish people on Tisha B’Av by uniting together as a community. We have the task as a Jewish people to better serve our world and to dictate the will of God through Torah, through acts of Gemilut Chasadim, acts of loving-kindness and through establishing peace throughout our world.
I ask that each and everyone of us to participate together and embark on such a journey of mourning and rekindling within our community by attending Tisha B’Av Services Wednesday Evening August 2 at 7:30 PM, and Thursday Morning August 3 at 7:30 AM and at 1:00 PM for our Mincha Service where we will start to rebuild together. Lunch will be served (there is no fee for this) following Mincha for those who will be ending their fast at that time.
As we mourn together and as we rebuild together on Tisha B’Av, we must also understand that on Tisha B’Av, an important task has been given to us as God’s holy servants. That task is the vital role we have in bringing companionship and peace into our world.
Kol Tuv
Rabbi Micah Caplan
