Our primary text for Tishah B’Av is the biblical book of Lamentations.

The book contains five poems (one chapter each), each written by different anonymous authors in the aftermath of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the subsequent exile in 586 BCE by the Babylonians.

Yet we read it every year as a prism through which to view all Jewish tragedies, particularly those commemorated on Tishah B’Av. 

Yet Tishah B’Av is not entirely in the past: memory, tragedy, and grief continue.

Meanwhile, the slate of liturgical poems recited on Tishah B’Av is already so full that many events that occurred on Tishah B’Av have yet to be written and included.

Moreover, the problem of hate and the violence it engenders, particularly antisemitism, is still prevalent, rendering Tishah B’Av much more than a day of commemoration of historic events.

It now takes on urgency for understanding today’s climate, for thoughtful approaches on how to work with allies to eradicate hate, and what thoughtful actions we can take to better shape the world into one where senseless love, justice, and peace reign.

For now, however, let’s better understand our reactions to communal tragedies.

Everyone responds to and processes tragedy and grief differently; there is no one right way. Yet it may be healthful to become more aware of how we ourselves and others process our people’s ongoing project of recalling and transforming loss and grief.

Below is a chart of 10 specific responses to communal tragic loss and grief that the book of Lamentations holds up for us. Take your time reading through these. Afterward, reflect on and/or discuss the following:

• Which of these emotional/spiritual responses to communal tragedy do you most associate with the historic tragedies associated with Tishah B’Av? Are there responses here that you do not associate with Tishah B’Av? Please elaborate on your initial reactions.

• Are there emotional or spiritual responses that are not listed here that you associate with the communal tragedies associated with Tishah B’Av?

• When the Shoah (Holocaust) is mentioned, which are the responses that predominate for you? Which do you not usually feel?

• How do you react when you hear of an act of terrorism against the State of Israel when Israelis are killed? On which responses do you tend to focus? Which tends not to come up for you?

• With which of these did you respond on hearing of and processing antisemitic acts here in the U.S., such as the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh?

Quite often in understanding ancient material, it’s important to notice what’s in the middle, what’s at the core. In Lamentations, the response is “hope.”

• While we all zig and zag when working through an array of emotions, how easily do you get to a place of comfort and hope? If you get there too easily, might you be repressing or otherwise bypassing some of these other responses? If it takes you a long time to get to a place of hopefulness, might you be lingering too long on one of these responses? 

• Some people worry that a focus on Jewish tragedies (past and present) might prevent us from empathizing, or even appropriately sympathizing, with other groups who have suffered from and through hate historically and currently (e.g. the African American community [and other POC], the LGBTQ+ community). How might we forge a “both/and” approach to such concerns?

Of course, Tishah B’Av can be an important vehicle for all of us to check up on where we are in managing our own feelings about our people’s history of tragedy and grief and their resilience, as well as our concerns and feelings about antisemitism today.

Let’s hope that this year’s reading of Lamentations and this year’s Tishah B’Av observance lead us all into a place of comfort with our tragedy and grief, hope for our future, and resolve to reshape the world into one more worthy of a G!d of love, a G!d of peace.

Kein y’hi ratzon! So may it be.

Responses to Tragedy and Grief in the Book of Lamentations