Tisha B’Av is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar, specifically focused on the destruction of the First (586 B.C.E.) and Second (70 C.E.) Temples in Jerusalem. This year, Tisha B’Av begins Saturday night, August 6. In 1969, Swiss psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the world to the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. She has certainly been criticized for suggesting a linear path through grief, and for the notion that there even is a path through grief. While we now know—and maybe she knew as well—that not everyone goes through all the stages, and certainly that there is no set order or roadmap to grief, our collective experience on Tisha B'Av does—and is meant to—take us on a journey. Noam Davidovics, writing on Sefaria.com, outlines the Book of Eicha as a perspective of grief—echoing Dr. Kubler-Ross's teaching. In his analysis, Chapter 1 is [...]

Tisha B'Av is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar, specifically focused on the destruction of the First (586 B.C.E.) and Second (70 C.E.) Temples in Jerusalem. This year, Tisha B'Av begins Saturday night, August 6. While centered around the destruction of the First and Second Temples, our tradition has always attributed a number of collective tragedies to the Ninth of Av. The Mishnah teaches: On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed. Additionally, history records that the edict of King Edward I compelling the Jews of England to leave the country was signed on the Ninth of Av in 1290, the Jews were expelled from Spain on that day [...]

Tisha B'Av is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar, specifically focused on the destruction of the First (586 B.C.E.) and Second (70 C.E.) Temples in Jerusalem. This year, Tisha B'Av begins Saturday night, August 6. Just as we are meant to increase our joy when the month of Adar begins, our Mishnah teaches that when the month of Av begins, we decrease in joy. The beginning of the month of Av brings with it certain traditional restrictions; the week in which Tisha B'Av falls brings even more. There are some who will not eat any meat within the first nine days of Av; some reserve that for only the week leading up to Tisha B'Av. Our ancient texts suggest that during this week, to mark its solemnity, we do not cut our hair or wash our clothes, and we certainly do not dress in our [...]