Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 27, 2006 Page: 2 of 24
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2 Texas Jewish Post
*
In Our 60th Year
July 27,2006
Rummage sale on a fast day? Tisha B’Av marked in various ways
Tisha B av this year. Aug. 2
By Jane Ulman
ENCINO, Calif. (JTA) — Tradi-
tional Jews mark Tisha B’Av by
fasting, reading from the Book of
Lamentations and observing rituals
of mourning.
But Tisha B'Av at The Valley
Temple, a Reform synagogue in
Cincinnati, took on a less somber
demeanor last year. Temple sister-
hood members spent the holiday
busily hosting their annual rummage
sale, sorting through piles of house-
hold goods, toys and clothing and
hawking them to prospective buyers.
In all fairness, the scheduling of
the rummage sale on Tisha B’Av, the
ninth day of the month of Av, which
falls this year at sundown on Aug. 2,
was not deliberate. But the fact that
sisterhood members were not aware
of the holiday, according to one
spokesperson who asked not to be
identified, reveals that Tisha B’Av, the
saddest day on the Jewish calendar
for Jews, is also a non-event in some,
usually Reform, congregations.
It also reveals how the destruction
of the Temple in Jerusalem, which
occurred in both 586 BCE and 70
CE and which Tisha B’Av commem-
orates, resonates differently among
various denominations.
“There’s a challenge for Reform
Jews around the observance of Tisha
B’Av, and communities make all
kinds of choices,” said Rabbi Sue
Ann Wasserman, the Union for
Reform Judaism’s director of wor-
ship, music and religious living.
The Valley Temple was not the
only Reform synagogue last year to
host a rummage sale or new member
brunch on Tisha B’Av. This is not
surprising considering that refer-
ences to the Temple’s rebuilding have
been moved from the Reform move-
ment’s liturgy. Granted, Reform
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Judaism docs not deny the existence
of the Temple or its historical role.
“But the difference theologically is
that we’re not looking for restoration
of the Temple and Temple sacrifices,"
Wasserman said.
Some Reform Jews, like 19th-cen-
tury Rabbi David Einhom, actually
see the holiday as celebratory, cred-
iting the destruction of the Temple
and the subsequent exile of the Jews
with enabling the Jewish people to
survive and become “a light unto the
nations,” as prophesied in the Book
of Isaiah (42:6 and 49:6).
Tisha B’Av is observed in most
Conservative synagogues, according
to Rabbi Ed Feinstein, spiritual
leader of Valley Beth Shalom in
Encino, Calif, and formerly of Con-
gregation Shearith Israel and then
Solomon Schechter Academy in
Dallas. “The question for Jews like
us is what does it mean to celebrate
Tisha B’Av at a time when Israel is
ours and Jerusalem is ours,” he said.
His congregation, in fact, tackled
this question at a Tisha B’Av discus-
sion several years ago, where,
drawing on the Shavuot model of
study, they spent two hours learning
and debating. Afterward, they read
the Book of Eicha, as Lamentations
is called in Hebrew, and prayed.
Valley Beth Shalom traditionally
partners with Adat Ari El in neigh-
boring Valley Village for Tisha B’Av
services. While both are Conserva-
tive and only 10 minutes apart, the
synagogues embody very different
cultures, reflected in opposite
approaches to the fast’s observance.
Valley Beth Shalom engages in dis-
cussions; Adat Ari El, which is
hosting this year’s service, favors a
more emotional approach. This
year, the service, in addition to
reading the Book of Lamentations,
will consist of some modern dra-
matic readings and the lighting of
six candles, to commemorate the
Holocaust and other tragedies that
occurred on the ninth of Av,
according to Senior Rabbi Moshe
Rothblum.
There doesn’t seem to be a basic
theology or ideology concerning the
role of the ancient Temple in Con-
servative Judaism, according to
Feinstein. He believes that the age of
animal sacrifices, appropriate at one
time, has been superseded by an age
of prayer, relegating the Temple to a
symbol. “When I read the prayers
asking for the rebuilding of the
Temple, I interpret that to mean the
unification and redemption of the
Jewish people,” he said.
At Reconstructionist Temple Beth
Or in Miami, Rabbi Rebecca Lillian
An Israeli boy sleeps on sackcloth as a sign of mourning, while others read
Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Thursday,
Aug. 7,2003, on the fast of Tisha B'Av, the date of the Jewish calendar that marks
the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples by the Romans in 70 CE.
Credit Brian Handler/JTA
observes the eve of Tisha B’Av with
her 125-family congregation. Usu-
ally the program includes a reading
of excerpts from Eicha, followed by
a contemporary take on Tisha B’Av,
such as a discussion of Milton Stein-
berg’s “As a Driven Leaf,” a novel that
unfolds during the time of the
Temple’s destruction.
This year, Lillian is taking a slightly
different approach. Tisha B’Av eve
will include readings from Eicha, as
usual. The following evening, con-
gregants will focus on Darfur and
modern genocides, a project of the
temple’s social action committee.
“The destruction of the Temple was
in many ways a genocide, killing Jews
and kicking them out,” she said.
References to rebuilding the
Temple in Jerusalem have been
removed from Reconstructionist
liturgy. But because the movement
is decentralized, individual syna-
gogues have ample leeway in terms
of how they celebrate various holi-
days, Lillian said.
There’s no ambivalence in the
Orthodox world, however, con-
cerning the role of the Temple. “We
pray” for its rebuilding “three times
a day,” said Rabbi Avi Shafran,
director of public affairs for Agu-
dath Israel of America, which
represents the fervently Orthodox
community.
Orthodox congregations across
the spectrum continue to commem-
orate Tisha B’Av in traditional ways,
such as observing a 25-hour fast
from sundown to the next night, not
wearing leather shoes, sitting on low
stools or on the floor during the
evening service and reciting Eicha
and other elegies.
It is a day of absolute mourning
for the destruction of Jerusalem’s
two Temples. For many Orthodox
Jews, and increasingly across the
denominational spectrum, the day
also encompasses other tragedies
that have befallen the Jewish people
on the ninth of Av, including the fall
of Betar, the last stronghold of the
Bar-Kochba Revolt, in 135 CE; the
Jews’expulsion from Spain in 1492;
and the beginning of the Jews’
deportation from the Warsaw
Ghetto to Treblinka in 1942.
Additionally, many in the fer-
vently Orthodox community
memorialize the Holocaust on Tisha
B’Av rather than on Yom HaShoah,
the traditional day of commemora-
tion for most Modern Orthodox
and other denominational congre-
gations. This is due, in part, to a
reluctance to add new holidays or
days of mourning to the calendar.
More importantly, according to
Shafran, “The illustrious rabbinical
leaders of a quarter-century ago felt
that nothing short of Tisha B’Av
could suffice for a tragedy as great
as the Holocaust.”
But in the fervendy Orthodox as
well as Modern Orthodox commu-
nities over the past few years, on the
afternoon of Tisha B’Av, a revolution
of sorts has been taking place in
many of the nation’s largest cities.
Instead of what Shafran describes as
“sleeping or sitting around and suf-
fering,” groups of Jews are gathering
by the thousands in large halls to hear
dynamic speakers expound on rele-
vant topics such as-senseless hatred
or hurtful speech. “It's become a mass
movement of Jews from one hall to
another, and it’s become a very
dynamic day,” Shafran said.
Meanwhile, many Orthodox
believe rebuilding the Tempi]
usher in the arrival of mes:
times and Tisha B’Av will become a
day of joyous celebration.
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Wisch, Rene & Wisch-Ray, Sharon. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 27, 2006, newspaper, July 27, 2006; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth755168/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .