Tonight at sundown Tisha b'Av begins, the 9th day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar. And this coming Shabbat will be Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Comfort. It is the first Shabbat after Tisha b'Av, which is a day of mourning and fasting to observe and grieve the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem as well as the persecution of the Jewish people from Spain and England. It is a day of sharing our communal losses together.
I am rethinking Tisha b'Av tonight from a new perspective–what are the old parts of ourselves that need to die in order to make room for rebirth? We need to mourn them in order to fully let them go. And what structures have we made into idols that interfere with our divine connection?
A beautiful musical prayer for Tisha b'Av:
http://www.kaplanmusic.com/News.html
What old aspects of yourself do you need to grieve and let go of? What will your mourning look like, and who will be your witnesses?
photo courtesy of JLR