The 9th day of the month of Av is often considered the saddest day in our year because the first and second temples were both destroyed on this same day. Our short service recognizing this day, Tisha B’Av, will begin a bit later than past years as we wait for sundown after Shabbat on Saturday July 21 to begin. We will start with Havdalah at 9:30 pm and our service for Tisha B’Av will follow.

 

Please join us as we listen to mournful kinot (dirges) played by Ivan Cooper on harmonica who will bring his own interpretation of lamentations and his original music to our service this year. The Book of Eicha (Lamentations) will then be chanted with the hauntingly sorrowful Eicha trope, a set of trope only heard for this reading. The Tisha B’Av service is markedly different from our other holiday services; we enter and leave quietly as befits the mournful nature of this day. Many of us choose to sit on the floor in the darkness of the library rather than enjoying the comfort of our well-lit sanctuary and chairs. (We will have chairs and pillows for the floor though, and flashlights for you - but you are welcome to bring your own flashlight, too). We invite the community to join us in this service that mourns not just the destruction of the temples but, more broadly, the suffering of the Jewish people throughout all time. Experience and reflect on this day with us.