Mishkan Chicago, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Center for Jewish, Christian & Islamic Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary, the Rogers Park Moishe Mouse, University of Chicago Hillel and diverse South Side partners, host a gathering to explore issues of racial violence, police brutality and other reflections of broken systems in Chicago and beyond, through the lens and rituals of Tisha b'Av.
Tisha B'Av (the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av) honors and mourns the brokenness, los...
Mishkan Chicago, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Center for Jewish, Christian & Islamic Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary, the Rogers Park Moishe Mouse, University of Chicago Hillel and diverse South Side partners, host a gathering to explore issues of racial violence, police brutality and other reflections of broken systems in Chicago and beyond, through the lens and rituals of Tisha b'Av.
Tisha B'Av (the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av) honors and mourns the brokenness, loss, and shattered ideals, in whose shadow we live every day, symbolized by the destruction of Jerusalem, 2,000 years ago. This Tisha b'Av we'll mourn the brokenness in our own city by reading Eikha (Lamentations) alongside spoken word poetry and modern reflections, focusing on the displacement, bloodshed, and desolation in Chicago. Poetic excursions will be led by Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen, Pastor Julian DeShazier, Tamar Manasseh, Adam Gottlieb, Harold Jaffe, and Stephanie Friedman.
THINGS TO BRING:
Despair, sadness, disappointment, grief and confusion are totally appropriate emotions to bring with you on Erev Tisha B'Av. In as activist a tradition as ours, this is the one holiday where we begin by sitting on the floor in a posture of mourning, before committing with our bodies, minds and spirits to being part of the solution as we look toward High Holidays in the weeks to come.
As the lights will be dim, bring a flashlight or candle so you can read. Or don't, and just listen.
We will have about 50 copies of Eikha/Lamentations but you should bring your own copy if you have one. If you want to download one, we recommend Reb David Seidenberg's translation here http://neochasid.org/ (click on 2015 Lamentations Eikha translation and print out the PDF- and then donate $5 for Reb Duvid's hard work!)
Finally, know: Tisha b'Av is about getting in touch with the places of pain, displacement, isolation and alienation we work so hard to ignore or distract ourselves from with food, drink, chit-chat, fancy clothes and lotions and perfumes... on TbA we refrain from all of that. It feels strange. Go with it. It will help you connect in a more powerful and direct way to the urgency of the day's message.