Tisha B’Av

Wednesday night, July 22, 8:00 pm EDT on Zoom only

Please come into our Zoom room with a tea candle or yahrzeit candle, and plan to sit in semi-dark.

We gather to share our many expressions of grief and reboot our commitments to the future

At this crucial time of the Jewish year, we reflect on the redemptive possibilities of healing as we channel sorrow into hopeful action.

We give voice in lament and prayer to our grief over the grave crisis that continues to engulf Israel and Palestine with repercussions for us and Jews everywhere, along with so many tragedies in our world that threaten and destroy life. We further pray that environmental catastrophes will spur us to action on behalf of humanity and the earth.

We resolve to promote democracy, justice, and peace..

Once again, we will commemorate Tisha b’Av with our unique late evening creation of a community Eichah, a renewal of the traditional lamentations with our own expressions of grief and commitments to change. This communal endeavor is at the center of our evening.

When you enter our Zoom Room you will hear a gentle rendition of the traditional Tisha b’Av poetic lament called Eli Tzion

The text will be sung by us as part of the overture to our time together. The pdf is attached below. Although we will be sitting in darkened rooms with candle-light, you may wish to print out this text. Our singing will be accompanied by a guided opportunity to gently move and embody the blend of sorrow and hope that this gathering embraces.

(Eli Tzion is the last piyut in the Ashkenazi collection of kinot – poems of grief – and is customarily sung by the whole community. In this kina, the poet turns to Zion, likening her to a woman who has suffered both destructive and redemptive pain: the pain of a young woman who is widowed, and the pain of a mother who brings new life into the world. Taken as a whole, the poem is a mournful call out to Zion to lament her tragic destruction. Only in the last verses do we come to understand that this kina is also a call to God to hear the Jewish people’s cry. To conjure this mournful call, the poet opens every stanza with alei and ends with ha, the the sounds of howling, weeping and sighing.)

May there be peace,
Rabbi Marcia

Listen to Shlomo Carlbach sing Al Eleh Ani Bochiyah

Shabbat Morning Prayers

by Rabbi Marcia Prager & Hazzan Jack Kessler

DISK 1
(After selecting a song, you may download it by clicking on the 3 dots.)

1. Hareni M’kabeyl Alay
2. Mah Tovu
3. Modeh/Modah Ani
4. Morning Blessings
5. Baruch Sheh-Amar
6. Torat Adonai T’mimah, Esa Einay, Me Ha-esh,Limnot Yamainu,Orech Yamim Asbe’eyhu
7. Ki L’Olam Chasdo, Ran’nu Tzadikim
8. Tov L’hodate, Ashrey,Va’anuchnu
9. Halleluya

DISK 2

1. Nishmat Kol Chai – Barchu
2. Yotzer Or, Ha-Kol Yoducha
3. El Adon
4. Tit’barach Tzureynu,Kadossh, V’ha_Ofnaim
5. L’El Baruch, Ahava Raba,V’ha-er Eyneynu, Va-Havi-Eynu L’shalom
6. Echad Yachid, Shema
7. V’ahavta In Torah Tov
8. Emet V’yatziv
9. Mi Chamocha, Tzur Yisrael
10. Amidah – Kedusha
11. Sha’alu Shalom, Oseh Shalom
12. Torah Service Excerpts: Ki Mitzion, L’cha Adonai
13. Torah Service Conclusion
14. Mourner’s Kaddish
15. V’shomru
16. Eyn K’Eloheynu