With the advent of Tisha B’Av we will say many Kinnot. Kinnot are Hebrew dirges, sad poems, or elegies both in the Bible and also to later poems. For years of saying these Kinnot which are traditionally recited by Jews on Tisha B’Av seemed like a distant memory of our collective experience of antisemitism. Even reading ones written after the Holocaust seemed artificial compared to the ancient ones or even those of the middle ages. Sadly our experiences this last year have crashed us back into Jewish history. Soon after the horrible events of October 7th Yagel Haroush wrote a contemporary kinah in response. Here is a haunting video of it:

In the penultimate verse he sings:

Eikhah-How is it that- mothers, girls and young women

Taken into captivity as in the day of pogroms

And fences were breached – righteous sheep

And the dancing ceased- and the songs of the singers

My eyes pour forth water- from the depth of my brokenness

Here Haroush situates the horrors of that day in the context of Jewish memory. How is is that they came for our mothers, girls and young women? Throughout history the morally deprived have exercised their power over women. Just as we were sent off to captivity after the first and second Temples were destroyed, our hostages have been taken into Gaza. While this is ancient in nature it also resonates with more recent memories as it was like a pogrom that we have seen throughout the world. The fence was breached as we saw on the 17th of Tammuz. And at the same time we see that the righteous were slaughtered as we saw in the Holocaust. And the huge number of people who were killed dancing and singing at the Nova Concert were understood in a religious context. Painfully, Tisha B’Av and its Kinnot are more relevant then ever. We are back in the mix of Jewish memory and our only response is to cry from the depths of our brokenness.

Have a meaningful fast.

For more resources for Tish B’Av see here:

• Resources for Tisha B’Av- FJC
• Lamentations-Kinot After Oct 7 for 9 B’Av Hebrew and English
• Source Sheet on Tisha B’Av after October 7th
• Reframing Tisha B’Av from the perspective of the 17th of Tammuz
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