Understanding the Nine Days: A Journey Through Mourning, Memory, and Meaning

As the new Hebrew month of Av begins this Shabbat, a season of quiet communal sorrow starts this evening that continues through Tisha B’Av known as The Nine Days. This period is the culmination of what we call the Three Weeks, a season marked by remembrance and reverence.  The Talmud gently reminds us: When the month of Av begins, we diminish in joy. We don’t diminish joy out of despair, but to create space for reflection on the loss of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

I hope that this week’s Shabbat message helps you better understand this important time of the Jewish year.

The Nine Days are not a retreat into gloom, but an invitation to lean into soul-searching and solidarity. Our sages teach that “those who mourn Jerusalem will one day rejoice in its rebuilding.” And in a breathtaking twist of hope, tradition suggests the Messiah is to be born on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the year.  This special season of the year teaches us that we must face brokenness with courage, and allow heartbreak to become the soil for renewal.

There are several customs and observances that encourage our awareness of this season. During the Nine Days (except Shabbat), we gently set aside pleasures and distractions. Many refrain from wine and meat, haircuts, music, festive events or even new purchases. These rituals echo the absence of Temple sacrifices and remind us that mourning is not passive, but active.

The Nine Days are rich with purposeful practice. Judaism teaches that loss must give rise to love. During this season, many take on the study of additional Jewish texts, and intentionally increase acts of kindness and tzedakah (righteousness and charity).  In this way, we transform the sadness into something potentially better.  We learn from that past and make a statement about our hope for the future.  We then combine that hope with actions that make a difference.

The Nine Days encourage us to feel the weight of difficult moments in our history.  But we do not simply mourn.  We maintain hope for the future. And when we grieve together with intention, we lay the foundation for rejoicing together in redemption.

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