{"id":60252,"date":"2018-07-18T08:43:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T13:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=60252"},"modified":"2018-09-02T06:13:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T11:13:21","slug":"the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/","title":{"rendered":"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently had the privilege of speaking with Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb about the deeper meaning of Tisha B\u2019Av. Rabbi Weinreb, a clinical psychotherapist and internationally-renowned Torah scholar, hosts the OU\u2019s annual Tisha B\u2019Av webcast. He is also the translator of the kinot in\u00a0The Lookstein Edition of the Mesorat HaRav Kinot\u00a0<\/a>(co-published with the OU).<\/em><\/p>\n

Note: Page numbers mentioned in this article refer to The Mesorat HaRav Kinot.<\/em><\/h5>\n

***<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Weinreb-sm\"<\/p>\n

1. On Tisha B\u2019Av we recite Kinot, mournful poems that intensify the sad ambiance of the day. Which themes would you say are central to Kinot? What are they there to teach us?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

RW: I\u2019m convinced that the writers of\u00a0kinot<\/em>\u00a0throughout the generations wrote them as a cathartic experience to express their grief, as a personal and national catharsis. They\u2019re a vehicle to express our grief, and that\u2019s ideally the feeling that we should have when we read them. Obviously we don\u2019t have the same feelings that panged the original authors, but that\u2019s the task of the teachers today: to convey to the reader the expression of pain, which can be therapeutic.<\/p>\n

Personally, I use the\u00a0kinot<\/em>\u00a0as a teaching tool. They weren\u2019t composed to teach Torah per se since we\u2019re forbidden to learn Torah on Tisha B\u2019Av, though there is a lot of teaching material that comes from\u00a0kinot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One thing that strikes me is the absence of the quest for revenge, for\u00a0nekama<\/em>.\u00a0 In the\u00a0kinot<\/em>, we mainly find descriptions of catastrophes throughout history, of the destruction of the two Temples, the Crusades, of the enemies, and then there\u2019s the conclusion in the last verse to bring the\u00a0geulah.\u00a0<\/em>But the expression of\u00a0nekama<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 which we do find in Tanakh \u2013 doesn\u2019t appear in the\u00a0kinot<\/em>. The authors weren\u2019t concentrating on\u00a0nekama\u00a0<\/em>when they wrote their\u00a0kinot<\/em>; instead they express the powerlessness of the Jews in Galut. When you\u2019re really powerless, you don\u2019t have the room for revenge.<\/p>\n

This starts to change with the Holocaust. This is why the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is such a strong emblem of\u00a0nekama.\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s not that they thought they\u2019d defeat the Nazis; but the drive to resist, to fight against the Nazis, it was a catharsis for them. One particular expression of this is the Bobover Rebbe\u2019s\u00a0kina<\/em>\u00a0about the Holocaust. There, he does mention\u00a0nekama<\/em>, but it\u2019s not a rageful search for vengeance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the full interview here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently had the privilege of speaking with Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb about the deeper meaning of Tisha B\u2019Av. Rabbi Weinreb, a clinical psychotherapist and internationally-renowned Torah scholar, hosts the OU\u2019s annual Tisha B\u2019Av webcast. He is also the translator of the kinot in\u00a0The Lookstein Edition of the Mesorat HaRav Kinot\u00a0(co-published with the OU).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":46501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fast-of-tisha-bav","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-18T13:43:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-02T11:13:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"942\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1413\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"OU Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"OU Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/\",\"name\":\"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-18T13:43:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-02T11:13:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/16fa628116077df495eff63919466143\"},\"description\":\"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg\",\"width\":942,\"height\":1413},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/16fa628116077df495eff63919466143\",\"name\":\"OU Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a831c8a2980269cfbdcda406de532cd63b14f4cb874831d0cc9e78593c080367?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a831c8a2980269cfbdcda406de532cd63b14f4cb874831d0cc9e78593c080367?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"OU Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/miriam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life","description":"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life","og_description":"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2018-07-18T13:43:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-02T11:13:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":942,"height":1413,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"OU Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"OU Staff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/","name":"The Psychology of Tisha B\u2019Av & Kinot: Five Questions for Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg","datePublished":"2018-07-18T13:43:58+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-02T11:13:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/16fa628116077df495eff63919466143"},"description":"What themes are central to Kinnot? Can we add our own Kinnot? How does Rabbi Weinreb's background as a clinical psychotherapist influence his understanding of Eicha and Kinnot?","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/the-psychology-of-tisha-bav-kinot-5-questions-for-rabbi-dr-tzvi-hersh-weinreb\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Weinreb.jpg","width":942,"height":1413},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/16fa628116077df495eff63919466143","name":"OU Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a831c8a2980269cfbdcda406de532cd63b14f4cb874831d0cc9e78593c080367?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a831c8a2980269cfbdcda406de532cd63b14f4cb874831d0cc9e78593c080367?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"OU Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/miriam\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60521,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60252\/revisions\/60521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}