Deepening Presence

The Mishnah in Ta’anit teaches us that five catastrophic events befell the Jewish people on the 9th of Av. On this day, we are meant to sit with the pain of those days, as well as the pain of modern national tragedies. Yet, rabbinic texts warn us about excessive mourning for both personal and national tragedies. We discuss how to approach the emotional intensity of Tisha B’Av, and what reverberations it might have for our day to day religious lives.