Topic Tags: tisha b'av

I am here, standing in the desert. / I wear heavy clothing that will protect me from bullets, / but not from my hurting heart.

“I cried out for my friends (1:19), / ‘See the distress I am in!’ (1:20). / There was no one to comfort me” (1:21). / “My heart is sick” (1:22)

“Your struggle is your strength”

We cry today until we too are parched and empty / We cry until despair and cynicism and immobilizing fear are washed away

In all of our history, / With all that we have been through, / The month of Av does indeed stand alone …

Kindle our moral imagination / so that our souls might sense / that redemption is still possible.

Please God / Extinguish the flames of this burning palace with / The soothing waters of love.

May this call of the shofar be a bridge between Olam Hazeh and Olam Haba

Dear God do not hold yourself silent; be not deaf or still dear God. / Be not deaf or still, dear heart.

A new ritual of creating a daily embodied spiritual practice for the liminal period of Sefirat Ha’Aveilut/the counting of grief, in the nine weeks between Shavuot and Tisha b’Av