Erev Tisha b'Av 2021 / 5781

with The Aquarian Minyan

Saturday 7/17 at 8pm Pacific time

Join Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, Sophie Miron, and others for a traditional reading of Megillat Eikcha as we enter the space of Tisha b'Av.

Download Eikhah Here

Tisha b’Av 5780 / 2020

Thursday July 30

From Mourning to  Joy: A Post-Tisha b'Av Healing Ritual

Thursday, July 30, 2020

7pm Pacific Time, on Zoom

Organized by 

Susan Duhan Felix

and

Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, Ph.d

Join us for a ritual to grieve our past and current collective trauma through ritual, song, chant, movement and silence. After a brief Ma’ariv service, we will burn a contemporary concoction of the ancient incense, as we acknowledge both the pain and the gift of shattered walls and hearts. We’ll celebrate the container for a shir khadash, a new song of hope, by consecrating a newly fabricated Incantation Bowl that invokes the primordial Jewish mothers. As we call forth the healing energy of our people, we’ll recall the ancient Midrash that envisions the birth of Messiah on Tisha B’av, imagining wholeness birthing out of the midst of pain and loss, joy unfurling from the midst of sorrow. In this time when so many feel inconsolable, join us as we move toward Shabbat Nakhamu, the first of seven Sabbaths of Comfort that support our work of teshuvah—the return to love, to Source, to wholeness.

with

Arielle Tonkin, Ami Goodman, Rabbi Diane Elliot, Elizheva Hurvich, Cantor Evlyn Gould, Rabbi Fern Feldman, Hana Matt, Cohenet Keshira HaLev Fife, Rabbi Leah Novick, Cantor Linda Hirschhorn, and Ruth Gendler 

The fast day of Tisha B’av opens a space of deep grieving for us to honor the Jewish memory of tragedy and destruction. The ancient Jerusalem Temple, spiritual center and the focus of holiness for our ancestors, was destroyed by the Babylonians, rebuilt and then destroyed six centuries later by the Romans. But our Rabbinic Sages empowered the local celebration of our covenant and peoplehood, enabling creative renewal of Jewish life. While most of us no longer grieve fervently for the animal sacrifice locus of our ancient Priestly Judaism, we mourn today the impending loss of democracy, growing economic inequity, the continuous scourge of racism and violence against people of color, the upsurge of antisemitism, and the ongoing destruction of our ecosystems.

This event is co-sponsored by Chochmat HaLev, Derekh haAretz, and JeWitch Collective

DOWNLOAD MEGILLAT EICHA HERE (We are grateful to David Seidenberg of neohasid.org for this resource)

COMMUNITY TISHA B’AV EVENTS



WEDNESDAY JULY 29:

The Aquarian Minyan Full Reading of Megillat Eicha - 9:30pm pACIFIC TIME

Tisha B'Av to Tu B'Av Cross-Community Vigil & Re-Emergence, hosted by Derech HaAretz Outdoor Yeshiva, The Aquarian Minayan, Knesset HaLev, New Paradigm Rabbinics, Mitzuit, and The Revolutionary Heart - Jewish Adventures.

Rabbi Diane Elliot at Taproot 6:pm - 7:15pm

We come together in ritual to chant from Eychah, the Book of Lamentations, and to offer our own words and melodies of lament. We will give voice and body to our grief, longing, and hope, raising it up as a holy response to suffering. It is customary to arrive quietly without joyful greeting and to depart the same way. We also invite you to dim the light as much as possible in the room you'll be joining us from, bring a candle to light, and sit in a low chair or on the floor if that's comfortable for your body. Facilitated by the Taproot Stewards: Adam Horowitz, Rabbi Diane Elliot, David Bronstein,  Reb Eli Herb, Reb Irwin Keller, Rachel Milford, & Rachel Plattus 

Clear Eyes, Broken Hearts: Tisha B’Av w. Kehilla & Urban Adamah

8pm - 9:30pm

Join Urban Adamah, Kehilla Community Synagogue, and Chochmat HaLev for an evening of prayer, reckoning, and mourning in commemoration of Tisha B’Av. On Tisha B’Av, we are called to read Megillat Eicha, the scroll of Lamentations, which recounts the heart breaking experience of losing one’s home.
The foundation of the United States rests on two awful forced erasures of home — the wrenching of Africans from their homes to serve as slaves in America, and the theft and transformation of Indigenous homeland into a place beyond recognition. Reckoning with clear eyes these centuries long and ongoing injustices is a painful and necessary process. What is possible if we choose to not look away? A portion of this program will include some chanting of Megillat Eicha, but not a full rendering of the text.

THURSDAY JULY 30:

Rabbi Diane Elliot at Taproot 8am - 9am

We come back together the following morning for processing and integrating as we learn and practice embodying the Baal Shem Tov’s process for moving through pain, a 3-part grief practice we can incorporate into our lives throughout the year. Facilitated by the Taproot Stewards: Adam Horowitz, Rabbi Diane Elliot, David Bronstein, Reb Eli Herb, Reb Irwin Keller, Rachel Milford, & Rachel Plattus