Thursday, September 16th 2021 |
By RABBI JOSEPH PROUSER
In certain games of chance, the number seven is considered particularly lucky. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, the number seven is a recurring feature. God rests on the seventh day, the culmination of creation. Noah brings seven pairs of pure animals onto the Ark. The Menorah at the heart of the Tabernacle (and, later, Temple) had seven branches.
The seventh year is marked as a Sabbatical; seven...
By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN
NEW YORK (JTA) — For many Jews, Tisha b’Av is centered around mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. But that interpretation misses out on an important lesson that is made more relevant by recent events, Rabbi David Seidenberg argues.
With the release of a new translation of the Book of Lamentations, the main text read on the annual fast day, the Massachusetts-based...
By EDMON J. RODMAN
(JTA) — As the fast day of Tisha b’Av approaches, the summer heat and humidity is rising.That got me thinking: Does the solemn day have the stuff to raise our consciousness as well?
Tisha b’Av — this year it begins on the evening of Saturday, August 13 — marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples, as well as other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. Traditionally, it’s a time to...
By YEHUDAH MIRSKY
JERUSALEM (JTA) — As we approach Tisha B’Av, the State of Israel is at war. The day’s commemoration of sorrow and pain, and urgent calls for introspection and reflection, couldn’t be coming at a more needed time.
On Tisha B’Av we take upon ourselves the burden, and the grace, of our connection to all Jews past, present and future, in times of suffering, as in times of...
By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF
Let’s take a long, hard look at historical reality. Those ex-slaves called Israelites have escaped their Egyptian prison. And for the first time – like your six year old toddled off to school alone – in a strange, new world – they wandered eventually into Canaan, a land full of pagan playmates.
The Almighty, who can see beyond the curve of the...
By EDMON J. RODMAN
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — On Yom Kippur, we ask “Who by fire?” Sadly, this year at Tisha B’Av we already know who — the 19 firefighters who perished in Arizona.
“This is as dark a day as I can remember,” Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement.
Unknowingly, the governor connected me to the mood of the Ninth of Av, the Jewish day of mourning that...
