August4

This evening we joined many thousands of others in the
observance of Tisha B'Av—the day the Temple of
Jerusalem was destroyed. It is said that both the first
temple (Solomon's) and the second (Herod's) were
destroyed on the same day. Jews from every nation
gather at around 9:00 at the Western Wall—all that
remains of the second temple—praying and reciting the
book of Lamentations. We stood with the large crowd
for a few minutes, then made our way down to a
section on the southern side of the ruins. There you can
clearly see where massive stones from the temple
crashed into the pavement below. A small Conservative
Jewish congregation was gathered there (men and
women) and we sat on the ground and joined them.
They were singing quietly when all at once the muezzin
from the Al-Asqa Mosque started his call to prayer with
the most eerie and dissonant sound I've ever heard. It
all but drowned out the singing for a few minutes. Not
long after it stopped, the rabbi prayed for the families
of the soldiers who have died in Lebanon, for the
injured, for courage and for peace. Then the
congregation stood and sang in beautiful harmony
Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem. What a moment.
How true for them is the passage from the Tisha B'Av
scripture, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed. They are new every morning. Great is Thy
faithfulness…"