Thursday, July 27, 2006
Reform 'Jews' 'celebrate' Tisha B'Av with rummage sale
Traditional Jews mark Tisha B’Av by fasting, reading from the Book of Lamentations and observing rituals of mourning.
But Tisha B’Av at the Valley Temple, a Reform synagogue in Cincinnati, took on a less somber demeanor last year. Temple sisterhood members spent the holiday busily hosting their annual rummage sale, sorting through piles of household goods, toys and clothing and hawking them to prospective buyers.
In all fairness, the scheduling of the rummage sale on Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, which falls this year at sundown on Aug. 2, was not deliberate. But the fact that sisterhood members were not aware of the holiday, according to one spokesperson who asked not to be identified, reveals that Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar for Jews, is also a non-event in some, usually Reform, congregations.
It also reveals how the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred in both 586 BCE and 70 CE and which Tisha B’Av commemorates, resonates differently among various denominations.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/29862/format/html/displaystory.html
Traditional Jews mark Tisha B’Av by fasting, reading from the Book of Lamentations and observing rituals of mourning.
But Tisha B’Av at the Valley Temple, a Reform synagogue in Cincinnati, took on a less somber demeanor last year. Temple sisterhood members spent the holiday busily hosting their annual rummage sale, sorting through piles of household goods, toys and clothing and hawking them to prospective buyers.
In all fairness, the scheduling of the rummage sale on Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, which falls this year at sundown on Aug. 2, was not deliberate. But the fact that sisterhood members were not aware of the holiday, according to one spokesperson who asked not to be identified, reveals that Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar for Jews, is also a non-event in some, usually Reform, congregations.
It also reveals how the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred in both 586 BCE and 70 CE and which Tisha B’Av commemorates, resonates differently among various denominations.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/29862/format/html/displaystory.html
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