Jews are suffering. Jews have suffered. Jews will suffer. This is not the full story. Nor is it the only story. But on Tisha b’Av, this is our primary story.
Summer is in full swing and due to the fact that the Jewish calendar is solar-adjusted, it’s the time of year when we as Jews
This is part of Jewschool’s poetry series on Lamentations for our modern cities and urban justice, by Adam Gottlieb: “America feeds on its children: / Bodies run through pipelines”
A lamentation poem, based on Eikha, chapter 5, on today’s Chicago, by Stephanie Friedman: “Whatever we imagine renewing, we must imagine anew. The sanctuary we would rededicate, the city we would rebuild, will not be some prelapsarian state to which we will be passively restored…”
Lamentations 4: An elegy from eikha for today’s cities: “What you see is the same; what you hear is a cup / Full of coins and a homeless guy asking for change.”
As we prepare for Tisha B’Av, thinking of all the ways people continue to see their cities ravaged by bloodshed and dislocation, it may be helpful to round up some poignant Tisha B’Av pieces from years past on this site.
A meditation on what Tisha B’av means today.
A contemporary lament poem (kinnah), in the style of Eli Tsiyon, for the plague of American racism, by Ruby K and Aryeh Bernstein.
Throwback Thursday to 2014 post about If Not Now Tisha B’Av service in Brooklyn, protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, with thoughts on responding to the crisis today.
Tonight begins the Hebrew month of Av, about which the Mishna teaches, “When Av enters, we diminish our joy — משנכס אב, ממעטין בשמחה” (Ta’anit