Tisha B’av at Palmer

Last evening, the entire Tzad Bet plus Shoafim gathered together for Maariv and the chanting of Eicha (Lamentations) and solemn songs.  All the chanichim (campers) and tzevet (staff) sat on the floor, and once the service began, lights were turned off and the dark enhanced the somber mood.  Multiple chanichim did a beautiful job of chanting the 5 books of Eicha in the haunting special melody that is guided by the trope signs.

This morning, Tzed Bet again congregated for t’fila that was spoken rather than sung as is usual, to mark the solemnity of the occasion.

A beautiful d’var Torah was presented by Rabbi Claudia Kleiman.  To give you the flavor of that, click here:

Rabbi Claudia Kreiman on Tisha B’av & Tu B’av; Tzad Bet

There was appropriate programming in place for all edot in Hinuch and sports.  We refrained from rikud (dance) and shira (singing) to mark the holiday.

To give you a flavor of Hinuch (education) today, this was the lesson in the Bet Midrash with Dr. Josh Kulp, Rosh Bet Midrash in his own words:

Today, while we commemorated Tisha B’av at Ramah, historic events were occurring in Israel. Over 1300 Jews went up on to the Temple Mount, perhaps the most Jews to have visited the Temple Mount on a single day in close to 2000 years, since the Temple was destroyed. Of course, in the background to this event lies the violence of the past few weeks, during which two Israeli soldiers were killed, three Israelis were killed in their home and four Palestinians were killed during protests. In my Bet Midrash class today, we discussed some of the Zionist, religious and political issues related to Jews going up to pray on the Temple Mount. It is a breach of religious freedom for the Israeli government to prohibit Jewish prayer there (as it currently does)? Why were the Palestinians so outraged at the metal detectors placed at the entrance to the site? Does Zionism dictate that Jews should attempt to occupy all land of historic importance to the Jewish people?
These are all very weighty issues for which there are not really any answers. My goal here was to get our chanichim to think about some of the difficulty issues facing Israel and the Jewish people.

Categories: Tefillot, Tzad Bet
Share: