OY! How can this be happening???

          If you have said these words lately,  you might be surprised to know you are echoing the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke them some 3000 years ago. He is the purported author of the Book of Lamentations, or Eichah! as we call it in Hebrew…(The ancient version of ‘OY!’) He was decrying the Babylonian destruction of Solomon’s Temple; we are decrying any number of situations today.

          You might be relieved to know that our tradition offers us one day per year to share in a collective ‘OY!’ so that we needn’t be alone in our suffering: That would be Tisha b’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av.

          This year, that would be Saturday night, August 6,  at 7pm at Brandeis when we can be together, in the dark, with candles. We will hear the haunting melodies of Eicha, read its poetry in English, which gives voice to our anguish, and have the collective space to declare whatever it is that is anguishing us. OY! Hope to see you there.

—Rabbi Me’irah