Tisha B’Av Services

Tisha B’Av is a 24-hour fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples.   It is the culmination of a three week period of solemnity known as Bein HaMetzarim, “Amidst the Straits,” which is initiated by the sunup to sundown fast of the Seventeenth of Tamuz, occurring this year on July 15.  On that day, the Babylonians first breeched Jerusalem’s walls in 586 BCE.

Known as the “Great Black Fast,” Tisha B’Av has also become a day of general mourning for other major disasters that have befallen the Jewish people, from the Edict of Explusion from England in 1290 to the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Evening services:

This year we will observe this day of commemoration with a special Maariv service, including the reading of Aicha, the Book of Lamentations, on the evening of Monday August 4.

Morning services:

Our observance will continue at the morning service on Tuesday August 5, during which we will chant special selections from the Torah and Prophets as well as dirges known as kinot.