Tisha B'Av at JCOM
The Jewish Congregation of Maui observes Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, from sundown on Monday, July 19, 2010 until the night of Tuesday, July 20, 2010.
On the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av in 586 B.C.E, the first great Holy Temple in Jerusalem was utterly demolished by invading Babylonians. Seventy years later, the second Holy Temple was erected. Almost six hundred years later, once again on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, in 70 C.E., the Romans sacked and destroyed the second Temple. The Temple was the vital, sacred, nerve center of the Jewish people. It shattered and utterly ended the First and Second Jewish Commonwealth. Countless lives were lost, families destroyed, and after the second Temple was destroyed, most of the Jewish people were exiled from Israel for approximately nineteen hundred years.
The ninth day of the Jewish month of Av commemorates the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples in Jerusalem as well as numerous other tragedies. This is a day of grief, mourning and fasting. Jews around the world sit on the ground or on low stools, particularly during the reading of Megillat Eichah, Book of Lamentations, and Kinot, mournful poetry. These acts are meant to help us to remember the events. They can increase our compassion and help us identify with the Jews during Temple days as well as our present day community. Author and lecturer, Rebbetzin Blu Greenberg writes, “Memory is protest, memory is activism, memory is the incredible power to turn grief and destruction into hope. Not to remember, not to relive, not to retell, not to mourn, not to feel pain, is to be finally and ultimately defeated—and not the other way around.”
All that said, it is sometimes very hard to feel mournful about events that took place so many centuries ago. This year, on Tish`a B`av evening after the megillah reading we will be airing the film “A Hero in Heaven”. The film is a wonderful documentary about a young American/Israeli soldier, Michael Levin z”l, who was the only American/Israeli to lose his life in the second Lebanon war. He was buried on Tish`a B`av last year and the film is an inspirational tribute to his devotion and love for Israel.
Join the Jewish Congregation of Maui in remembrance. Tisha B’Av services will be held at the following times: Monday, July 19 at 7:00pm for Ma’ariv/Evening service which will include the recitation of Eicha/Lamentations; Tuesday, July 20, at 9:30am for Shacharit/Morning service with a Torah reading.