Dear Friends,
Chodesh tov – welcome to the month of Av. We’re moving into late summer, and a traditional time of communal grief. The 9th of Av and the days moving into it aren’t exactly a time to reflect on what’s weighing on us as individuals – they’re a time to honor the traumas we’ve experienced as a people, very long ago, less long ago, and still today. If you look up a list of tragedies and horrors marked by Tisha b’Av, you’ll find events that happened thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago, and just a few years ago; in the Middle East, in Europe, in North Africa, and in the States; specifically directed towards Jews and not directed towards Jews at all. It’s a big mix. I see Tisha b’Av, in part, as an exercise in empathy. We are grieving all of these things – even the thing we wouldn’t normally think to grieve; even the things that feel like they aren’t “ours” to grieve. And also, we’re grieving the things we’re always grieving. We’re joining one another in that grief, showing up for one another emotionally.
So with that, I’d like to invite you to three opportunities to recognize this time in three very different ways. Choose your own adventure – maybe pick what feels right for you, or maybe even pick what feels like a bit of a stretch, particularly a stretch in empathy.
Wherever your grief and fears are strongest right now, and whatever your heart breaks for, I’m wishing you an open and resilient heart as we move into the month of Av.
Shabbat shalom chodesh tov,
Rabbi Hannah