Dear {{first_name}},
Hope everyone is surviving the heat as new records are reached across the country and the world. I was in London when the temperatue reached an all time high of 40 Celcius, which is 104F. It was brutal. Extreme weather events are our new normal it seems, and it is hard to deny the rate at which the earth is heating up and the devastation it is causing with the impact of tragic floods and fires in Kentucky, California, Oregan and other places.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Hazon (named after Isaiah's vision of the destruction of Jerusalem), which leads right into Tisha b'Av tomorrow night and the commemoration of the First and Second Temples destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans respectively. Other than Yom Kippur, Tisha b'Av is the only full fast day beginning before dark and ending after nightfall. Tisha b'Av is a calendar date, the 9th of the month of Av, and actually this Shabbat is the 9th of Av, but apart from Yom Kippur, we never actually fast on Shabbat, we feast, so it is delayed until the following day. Fasting is about intropection, about complicity and prayer and contemplation; about asking how could it be and why, why, why?
There are many parallels between the creation of the world and the building of the temple. The planet, the earth, is seen as God's temple - sacred, beautiful, miraculous and fragile. For those of us who mark this solemn day and observe the fast, perhaps our contemplations can also be for this earth and the ways in which it is threatened with destruction, pouring out our hearts in prayer and mourning, in hope and healing.
The Fast begins at 8.09pm Saturday night and ends at 8.38pm on Sunday night. You can access Bonai Shalom's in person and virtual offerings for Tisha b'Av events and services here
On the night of Tisha b'Av we sit on the floor and read Eicha, the haunting Book of Lamentations by candlelight. Traditionally, we do not greet one another, as if we were in a house of mourning.
However we choose to spend this solemn day, I hope it is a meaningful day and that, as always, we anticipate the light beyond the darkness, the rebuilding beyond the destruction.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Marc
