A Tisha B’Av presentation from Michael Rainsbury. A former Birmingham student, Michael made Aliya in 2013. He currently serves as the Head of Adult Education at the London School of Jewish Studies.
The Kinot we read on Tisha B’Av are a litany of persecutions and expulsions suffered in Europe for 2000 years. Secular Israelis, who had forged a new reality for Jews, broadly did not connect to this day of eras past – unlike religious Jews whose mourning remained unchanged, even after 1967.
Following October 7, there is an opportunity to reappraise the Israeli relationship to this ancient day. How can the words of Eicha and the Kinnot not resonate with all we have witnessed? Can the Talmud’s treatise on what caused the destruction of the Temple teach us timely lessons about the role of religion in Israel today?
RSVP here