A heretical view of Tisha B’Av

July 12, 2013

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...

On Tisha B’Av, feeling the loss from the flames

July 12, 2013

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...