Tisha B'Av

This video is a little more serious than some of my usual posts. This one deals with a day in the Jewish calendar known as Tisha B'Av (lit. "the 9th of [the Hebrew month of] Av"). It is a fast day during which we remember the destruction of both our temples in Jerusalem. Though they happened many years apart, both were destroyed on the same day of the year.

There are a few other things that Jews customarily do to mourn the Temples. We dip an egg in ashes before eating it (The egg is a symbol of new beginnings - it's round shape denotes the end of the old and the start of something new, while the ashes signifies the actual destruction of the Temples). We don't wear leather shoes. We sit on the floor or very low chairs.

On the night of Tisha B'Av, we also read Eichah/Lamentations. Here in this video, see Rabbi Shmuli Friedman expounding on the last phrase of Eichah, "Hashiveinu Hashem eilechah v'nashuvah chadesh yameinu k'kedem," "Return us to you, O G-d, and we shall return, renew our days as of old."