The Three Weeks and Tisha b’Av
The Rambam states in the Mishnah Torah that the purpose of fast days is to arouse us to do Teshuvah, not simply to refrain from food and drink.
By Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Tisha B’av Kinot 5771: Rabbi Weil
“Tears of Faith…Visions of Hope” – Rabbi Weil’s Kinot from Tisha B’Av 5771. As humans, we cannot relate to macro destruction intellectually or emotionally. We can relate to personal accounts. Only...
Tisha B’av Kinot 5771: Rabbi Weinreb
Rabbi Weinreb regrets an error he made in the Tisha B’Av 2011 presentation. He spoke of Eyal Noked, z”l, who died of a tragic illness, but was not the victim of...
By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Tisha B’Av Video 5771: Rabbi Weinreb
The Holocaust was radically different than any tragedy before it. Does it warrant its own day of mourning or should it be mourned on Tisha B’Av?
By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Tisha B’Av Video 5771: What Does the Churban Mean...
If we can’t cry on Tisha B’Av for what happened, we can at least cry about the fact that we don’t fully understand Tisha B’Av & what we lost with the...
The Love of Brothers
Adapted for this series from Rabbi Yaacov Haber’s “REACHINGS” Short Story: Two brothers lived on two sides of a mountain. One was rich but had no children, one had many children...
The Prophecy Shall Come True
The Talmud, on the last page of the Makkot tractate (24b) relates a story about Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva who were on their way...
The Connection Between Parshat Devarim and Tisha B’Av
Parshas Devarim is always read on the Shabbos right before Tisha B’Av. The Biur Halacha (528:4) explains that this is purposefully done in order that Moshe Rabbeinu’s admonition to the Jews...
The Haftarah of Shabbat Chazon
The Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, is called Shabbat Chazon – the Shabbat of foretelling – as we read the Haftara portion from the prophecy of Isaiah (1:1-27), as the final of...
Tisha B’Av and Parshat Va’etchanan
The Torah reading of Tisha B’Av morning is found in Parshat Va’etchanan (4:25-40). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 38a) references this reading with the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash, as the numerical...
