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Prayer Tools-Three Weeks-Languages of Exile
“Open your heart to God and tell Him your worries in any language you choose. Since you posse...
Prayer Tools-Kavanot for the Three Weeks-Breslav-Find Your P
A Chasid asked the Breslover, "You taught us that a person should apply every Psalm to himsel...
Prayer Skills: The Three Weeks: Finding the Place to Pray
“Know that God has set apart to Himself the devoted one; God will hear when I call to Him (Ps...
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Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av: Part Six
“Who removes sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids. And may it be Your will...”“Slee...
Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av: Part Five
I received an e-mail this morning asking why I am relying on so many secular sources for this...
Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av: Part Four
“Who gives sight to the blind.” For us, — whatever's undergone, Thou knowest, willest what i...
Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av: Part Three
An Understanding Heart to distinguish between day and night: “If you see ten troubles coming ...
Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av: Part Two
To Toil in Torah: “An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox (Lao-Tzu).” “When you’re at ...
Morning Blessings For the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av Part 1
How does one pray with joy during the Nine Days and on Tisha B’Av? I offer the following Kava...
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iSing-Pesukei d’Zimrah-Kavanot for the Three Weeks-Ashrei
In Psalm 145:19, we read, “He will fulfill the desire of them who fear Him.” But we must firs...
Pesukei D’Zimrah for the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av 3
Ashrei: Singing to Heal: Singing so We Can Sing More: “Now the spirit of God had departed fro...
Pesukei D’Zimrah for the Nine Days & Tisha B’Av 1
Hodu: Travels With The Ark 1) The ...
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i-Love-Shema-Kavanot-Three-Weeks-Satisfied-With-Us
In Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu Zuta 2, God's qualities are enumerated. One quality is satisfaction wi...
Shema: The Three Weeks: Mitzvah Planters
Posted in honor of M.S. a true Mitzvah Planter: “God does mighty deeds. He does things entire...
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Amidah-Tisha b'Av-Yerushalayim-Eternal Experiences
“And Malkitzedek, King of Shalem (Genesis 14:18),” Malkitzedek, who was Shem the son of Noach...
Amidah-Tisha b'Av-Kibutz Galuyot-Gathered in Honor
“Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and speedily g...
Amidah-Three Weeks-Yerushalayim-A Torch
Rabbi Hoshiah said: Jerusalem is destined to be a lantern for all the nations, and they will ...
Amidah-Three Weeks-Yerushalayim-To Whom Does it Belong
The First Tanna is of opinion that Jerusalem was not apportioned to any of the tribes, while ...
Amidah-Three Weeks-Yerushalayim-To Live at a Higher Level
On one occasion a man read in the presence of Rabbi Elazar, “Make known to Jerusalem her abom...
Amidah-Three Weeks-Yerushalayim: From Whose View?
When we pray for God to rebuild Jerusalem we are looking back into history, remembering Jerus...
Amidah-Nine Days-Mei Marom: Living With Salvation
“For we hope for Your salvation all the day.” – When a soul is brought forward into its final...
Amidah-Nine Days-Ritzei-V'techezena Eineinu
It is one thing to ask God to allow us to witness His return to Zion with our own eyes in the...
i-Attach-Amidah-Kavanot Three Weeks-Jerusalem
Rabbi Yitzchak of Ziditchov said to a Chasid who despairingly told him that the physician of ...
iAttach-Amidah-Three Weeks-Abundance
The Ropshitzer was told that his master, the Rimanover, blessed a man, and that the man was b...
iAttach-Amidah-Kavanot for the Three Weeks-Demanding of God
On the Eve of Yom Kippur the Berdichever undertook his ritual immersion quite late in the aft...
Amidah-Tisha b'Av-Yerushalayim-The People’s City
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said: We have an aggadic tradition that Jerusalem will not be rebui...
Amidah-Tisha b'Av-Yerushalayim-The First Moment of Olam
“Even in Shalem is set His Mishkan, and His dwelling place in Zion (Psalms 76:3).” Rabbi Bere...
Amidah-Tisha b'Av-Rashbi: Yerushalayim: Rest Your Presence
“V’Tishkon b’tocha,” Rest Your Presence in Jerusalem: Rabbi Shimon was one day walking throug...
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Hallel Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph Six: Our Story
Ours, is a story that already resonates throughout the world. Less than three years after the...
Hallel Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph Five: Planting Seeds - Coll
Rabbi Yosef of Coucy reminds us that we were sent into exile for two purposes: 1) To plant se...
Hallel Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph Four: One Day We Will Look
What is our vision for what we will do when we leave this exile? We will look back and realiz...
Hallel Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph Three: Expecting Blessing
Why do we sing that we are about to begin a new stage in our existence? Why do we declare our...
Hallel Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph Two: We Will Leave Again
“It’s why we’re all so fascinated with history. We’re in a rowboat. We move forward, but we’r...
Hallel: Rosh Chodesh Av Paragraph One: Aways Your Servants
“And who recited this Hallel? The prophets among them ordained that Israel should recite it a...
| Haftarah: Tisha B'Av: Waves of Tears |
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 Jeremiah 8:13 - 9:23: I am proud that we continue to read this prophecy more than 2400 years after Jeremiah first spoke it. We stand up, two and a half millennia later, and accept the prophet’s words
of rebuke. We chant this mournful Haftarah with full acknowledgment that we are responsible. The centuries have not diluted our awareness. We have not used all this time to find excuses, reasons and explanations. We have not dumped Jeremiah’s thoughts on the “dustbin of history”. We read Jeremiah because we understand that his words are as real today as they were when first spoken to the people of Jerusalem 24 centuries ago. (Please see Lamentations: Kinah 8: Lessons About Crying on The Foundation Stone Blog for insights into this Haftarah.) One of the most emotionally intense prophecies in the bible, this Haftarah hits us with waves of passion. The first wave crashes over us with words of a warning that is not what may happen, to be determined by the people’s response, but a massive wave of what will happen: “I shall utterly destroy them. There will be no grapes on the grapevine and no dates on the date palm, the leaf will wither, and what I have given them will pass away. God has silenced us and given us poisonous water. We are hoping for peace, but there is no good; for a time of healing, but behold, there is only terror!” (8:13-15) We are shivering, soaked, choking, when the second wave smashes us with God’s cry of rebuke: “Why have they angered Me with their graven idols, with their alien vanities?” (8:19) We are flattened by Jeremiah’s tsunami, struggling to breathe, and we watch a small wave of tears approach us: “The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, but we were not saved” (8:20) Are we ready to be inundated by Jeremiah’s pain? “Over the collapse of my people’s daughter have I been shattered; I am blackened, desolation has gripped me.” (8:21) How can we find the strength to stand up to Jeremiah’s agony? He stood up and warned us for so many years and we chose not to hear him, not to listen, not to change. We sit on the ground, chilled to the bone, grasping onto anything firm that will allow us an illusion of security. We survey the destruction around us: the physical destruction, and the spiritual. We remember and consider the lost souls, the wasted efforts and lives, the unanswered questions, the gnawing doubts, the vacuous voices of authority, the lack of meaningful direction, and we mourn. How much more can we survive? Another wave is forming. We are too defeated to run, but we watch as it grows into a huge beast: “Who is the wise man who will understand this, to whom the mouth of God speaks – let him relate it: For what reason did the land perish, become parched like a desert, without passerby?” (9:11) We believed in our sophisticated wisdom. We had confidence in our logic and intellect. We thought we had the answers, but now we cannot even answer this basic question. “An intellectual is usually someone who isn’t exactly distinguished by his intellect. He claims that label to compensate for his inadequacies. It’s as old as that saying, “Tell me what you boast of and I’ll tell you what you lack.’ The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant, and the feeble-minded as intellectual.” (Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Angel’s Game) This wave washes away the last of our illusions that we were too wise for the Torah, to pious, humble and devout to be punished. We are left with all our false constructs smashed to smithereens by the waves of tears crashing from Jeremiah’s eyes and words all over us. “So says God: Let not the wise man laud himself with his wisdom and let not the strong man laud himself with his strength, and let not the rich man laud himself with his wealth. Only with this may one laud himself –discernment in knowing Me, for I am God Who does kindness, justice, and righteousness in the land, for in these is My desire,’ the words of God.” (9:22-23)  |
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