On Saturday night, August 6 and Sunday, August 7, the community commemorates Tisha B’Ab, the ninth day in the Hebrew month of Ab, a time of multiple historical disasters for the Jewish people. The key disasters commemorated are the destruction of the first and second Temples which Jewish tradition believes occurred on this day in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively. The day is also associated with the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 and the expulsion from Spain in 1492.
As this is a sad day, healthy community members over the age of bar or bat mitzvah (13 for boys and 12 for girls) fast which means they abstain from taking any food or water. They do not wear leather shoes or creams and perfumes. Evening prayers include reciting Aicha or the Book of Lamentations where the prophet Jeremiah recalls the horrors of the destruction of the first Temple. In the evening and morning prayers, community members recite medieval kinot which are dirges reflecting the sorrow of past tragedies for the Jewish people.
Why do Jewish communities including our community in Uganda dwell on tragedies that happened over a thousand years ago? By uniting with the Jewish past—in its most tragic times—KKSY members are best equipped to unite with the Jewish present and future. Jews have always learned from their entire history—the happy times and the sad timesg–how to build strong communities for the present and the future.
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