CONGREGATION DOR HADASH

MOURNING HOLY TEMPLES, HOMES, & HUMANS

In the sacred Jewish calendar, we are entering the last Shabbat before the Ninth day of the midsummer month of Av -- Tisha B'Av, when the Holy Temple was burned by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE and again by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. The mournful holiday called Tisha B’Av mourns this destruction. We recap the story of the destruction by reading from the Book of Lamentations also known as Aicha.

For us today it has additional meaning. It is the time when the heat is brutal, when forest fires blaze, when cities and human beings are being destroyed, when LGBTs fight for the right to marry and the chance to march for Pride in Jerusalem and all over the world, and when American citizens are still fighting for the right (not the privilege) to health care and reasonable wages.

This is the Shabbat of Vision -- when we read Isaiah's vision of rebuke and warning (Chapter 1).

We mourn all the holy places, homes, and human beings who are being shattered or neglected in this very month…

I urge all of us to fast, as tradition encourages, if even for the first time, for as much of that day as our bodies can bear – and to devote the money we would have spent for food to supporting efforts to seek peace and heal the suffering.

© Rabbi Yaffa-Shira Sultan

The above writing was inspired by the writings of Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center.