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A good friend of mine once reflected that life is a process of discovering why clichés are clichés.  Does the phrase “where does the time go” count?!  It’s hard to believe it’s the first of August already, with its ever-present heat, sudden and fierce rainstorms, summer concerts and festivals.  Here at TBD we have our own summer traditions: outdoor Torah Study, Parents’ Night Out and Sisterhood Dinners.  It is also a time without the presence of one holiday following another, which characterizes much of the rest of the year. 

The Hebrew month of Av actually does hold a holiday once minimized, now re-embraced, by many Reform Jews.  Tisha B’Av – the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av – is a fast day which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other calamities and dispersions in our history.  It’s easy enough to understand the past minimization of this day.  Reform Jews were among the first to acknowledge that over time, the homes we had forged for ourselves in the Diaspora had become exactly that: home.  No longer seeing ourselves as a people in exile, we thrived on the creative tensions that come from maintaining Jewish identity and practices within the larger cultures we felt a legitimate part of.  A literal return to Temple times in Jerusalem, with its now foreign seeming rites and sacrifices, was hardly longed for.

In more recent years, as Reform Judaism turned its attention to forgotten aspects of our tradition, Tisha B’Av has re-emerged as a day which contributes to the fullness of our story, just as our most joyous festivals do.  Its acknowledgement of massive loss and grief is honest and brave.  The expression of these feelings through the Book of Lamentations which is read on Tisha B’Av, while not always easy to take in, is inspirational in its very ability to cry out, rather than to ignore or suppress.  And as the destruction of the Temple paved the way for Rabbinic Judaism with its customs and values that typify the Judaism we hold dear today, there is the paradoxical truth Tisha B’Av embodies: sometimes a great loss can give way to a great rebirth.

Tomorrow evening, Saturday August 2 at 7:00pm, we’ll be watching and reflecting on the documentary “October 8.”  This is a film about the explosion of anti-Semitism on college campuses, on social media and in the streets of America in the aftermath of October 7^th, 2023.  As you can imagine, it will be an intense viewing experience; all the more reason to watch it together, in our community that gives us safety and support.

B’Shalom,

Rabbi Rebecca Gutterman