What does Tisha B'Av ask of us after October 7?

Tisha B'Av is the saddest date on the Jewish calendar, but Rachel Goldberg-Polin argues it also offers hope and opportunity. In a conversation shaped by the personal and collective trauma of October 7, she explains why Jewish tradition gathers centuries of loss onto a single day, why it compels us to look inward, and how mourning is meant to become the first step toward repair.

Rachel’s suggested reading:  This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Rabbi Alan Lew

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In this episode:

- Why Tisha B'Av became Judaism's day of mourning

-  The original national failure: The spies and the Promised Land, 

- The centrality and importance of the Temples we can’t comprehend

- Sinat chinam and the danger of baseless hatred

- Why Jewish tradition looks inward after catastrophe

- How Tisha B'Av is observed and why the rituals matter

- Rav Kook's answer: from baseless hatred to baseless love

- Finding hope, repair, and "yet" after grief

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Credits: Ilan Benatar, Ryan Lohr, Beth Pearlman, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo