The lessons and liturgy of Tisha b’Av

This coming Wednesday evening/Thursday is Tisha b’Av. 

The aim of the fast and associated practices is not just to enable us to recall history. As with so many of our religious practises throughout the year – whether joyous or otherwise – they are actually designed so that we experience in our own lives those past events and their implications. As far as Tisha b’Av is concerned, a key lesson is that had there been no churban (destruction) or exile, our world would be very different; its causes are relevant to us as well. Hence the liturgy and its content relating to so many events recited as we sit on low chairs as we do when we in our lives have experienced personal loss.

Actually, of all aspects of our liturgy, whether recited thrice daily or once annually, the kinnot (elegies) of the Tisha b’Av morning service, stand out as the least well known and understood. Unloved and unwanted as the day of Tisha b’Av itself, most editions are not even in a format that belongs in a library. Tradition has it that as we hope that the messianic advent would soon make them redundant, there is no need to print them except in the cheapest manner; little did it matter if flimsy productions would not last a lifetime. I clearly recall an incident when I was of school age, when the late Rabbi Boruch Abaranok who at one time sold sefarim in Glen Eira Road handed me such a flimsy Kinnot book apologising in his humble manner even to a young boy for giving me such a “primitive” gift – and of course explaining why it was so in a lesson that remained with me ever since. (The Lookstein edition with commentary based on the teachings of Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik and the Artscroll edition as well as the Rosenfeld Kinnot that preceded them broke with tradition as exceptions to the rule. Educational they are – but hopefully in the future they will serve as repositories of history rather than practical prayer books.) 

And beyond that general downplaying of their position amongst our liturgical treasures, is an attitude to their recitation unparalleled elsewhere. Which Orthodox shule would decide on any other day of the year to omit elements of a prescribed liturgy on an ad hoc basis? Strictly speaking the recital should take till midday – yet many have a policy to recite only the first few and a number of others considered key compositions – a decision largely left to the discretion of the rabbi, chazzan or other individuals. And many who do recite all or some have not studied their meaning, format and inbuilt references in a way that all other aspects of our liturgy are studied so that they are fully understood and are able to be recited with proper kavannah (intent presupposing understanding). 

On the other hand, I must make reference to Tisha b’Av that I have twice experienced in Beit Knesset HaGra in Bayit Vegan, Yerushalayim. In that strictly Ashkenazic shule whose minhagim date back to the German ways of its immigrant founders (as well as rulings of the Gra, the Gaon of Vilna followed by 19th century settlers since adopted as part of “minhag Yerushalayim”) subsequently collated and formalised by the late Dayan Yehezkel Abramsky, each kinnah is read in a specific traditional tune by one participant. Additionally, and even at Shacharit, the service – so much rushed and shortened elsewhere – is followed by rereading Megillat Echah (the biblical book of Lamentations) from a properly written parchment Megillah. (Basic halachah provides that Megillat Echah is read in the evening as Tisha b’Av commences; whilst most communities worldwide generally read it from a printed book, communities following minhag HaGra and Yerushalayim use a handwritten scroll and recite the blessing “al mikra megillah”. However in the morning when that reading is optional rather than prescribed, even when a scroll is used it is read without the blessing.).