for Tisha B'Av falling on Saturday night

[David Seidenberg]

Hi Chevra,

You may know that when Tisha B'Av falls on a Saturday night, we
traditionally don't do a normal havdalah. There are several possible
customs, but the most common is probably to NOT do havdalah Saturday
night but wait until Sunday night. In that case, it is still
traditional to say the blessing on fire, which is available to be used
after Shabbat ends.

I want to encourage folks to use havdalah candles to do that blessing,
and to emphasize an image that is part of many havdalah ceremonies, to
look into each other's eyes to see the reflection of the candle light.
If you do that, in place of a havdalah ceremony, you could use a
liturgy written by Rabbi Arthur Waskow called "Between the fires".
Here is an abridged version of that liturgy, and you can go to
https://legacy4now.theshalomcenter.org/node/276 to see the fuller
version.

May your Tisha B'Av be a meaningful time of reflection and t'shuvah.

David S
_________________

"Between the Fires" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
(with minor additions by Rabbi David Seidenberg)

On this day, the ninth of the month of Av,
the day when the Temples burned,
days before the first atomic bomb was dropped on human beings,
this day when many of us have tasted ashes,
we share a unique burden.

We are the first generation to understand
what the Floods could mean:
The Flood of Noah, when the Water of Life undid Life
and the Flood of Malachi, the Flood of Fire.

We are the generation standing
between the fires, even as we stand in the midst of fire:

Behind us the flame and smoke
that rose from the Temples,
that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima.
Before us the nightmare of a Flood of Fire and Water,
from the burning of the Amazon and the melting of the Antarctic,
"the day that comes burning like an oven,"
a day when our flames could consume so much of the earth.
In our very midst, the fires of war, and the belly fire of hunger,
in the land of the promise, and in other lands.

It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze
but a light in which we can see each other fully.
All of us different, All of us bearing One Spark.

Let us light a fire within that let’s us see more clearly
that the earth and all who live as part of it are not for burning.

Let us light our fires to see more clearly
the rainbow in the many-hued faces of all life.

Blessed is the One within the many.
Blessed are the many who embody the One.

"Here! I am sending you Elijah the Prophet
Before the coming of the great and terrible day
of YAHH, the Breath of Life.
And he shall turn the heart of fathers to their children
And the heart of children for their fathers.
Lest I come and strike the earth
utterly."

Here we stand
before the great and terrible day —

Let us turn the hearts of parents to their children
and the hearts of children to their parents
so that this day of smiting does not fall upon us or our children.

"And then the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth
and heal with her wings."

Ken Y'hi Ratzon, So May It Be.