A prayer to add for Tisha B'Av, plus Laments

[David Seidenberg]

As always, you can get Laments, neohasid.org's translation of Eikhah, with intro and additional piyutim and reflections, at:

neohasid.org/resources/laments

But there's something else I want to share: a prayer for an end to the violence carried out by extremist settlers in the West Bank, by hilltop youth and etc., which so damages human beings, and the soul of the Jewish people, and the reality and the standing of Israel. )I actually spent Friday in the West Bank with Rabbis for Human Rights and today with Rabbi Arik Ascherman.)

This prayer is a google doc, and the link is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QV3ECtuzSpsEJW2lU4oBEIfQ01FwWeDKwHhPr6-2JB0/edit?usp=sharing

Note: I usually create a whole new "wrapper" for Laments -- the outside pages that add prayers and touch on issues of justice and holiness and the point of Tisha B'Av. This year, I am in Israel and I broke my computer screen, so I am instead simply offering a prayer on a separate sheet to add to your Tisha B'Av, if it fits with your understanding of the day and with your community's intent. Actually, I've been working on the prayer in the National Library in Jerusalem, which was amazing.

My basic assumption and reason for
this prayer is that the injustices going on in the West Bank are an existential threat to Israel, since they fundamentally undermine the covenant.

Of course what has been done to Gaza is on another scale entirely -- but the wrapper from last year already has additions for Gaza, as well as for the devastation of October 7 (even though I would have liked to edit those), and of course there is still killing in Gaza, though so many folks seem to have forgotten about that in many of our communities.

As usual, I ask and invite you to share with me suggestions, emendations, objections.

Also note: this is not written as a prayer to God. Rather, the assumption of this prayer is that we are fully responsible for fixing this and that it depends not on Hashem but on us. And that also fits with the idea of not saying bakashot prayers on Tisha B'Av, because "סתם תפלתי", as it says in Laments.

There will be a pdf of this prayer later today and I will upload it to neohasid and send out a link as soon as I can. If you get me suggestions soon enough, I may be able to incorporate them.

Wishing everyone a meaningful time of reflection in the face of a severely broken world.

David Seidenberg

PS. I have been deeply struck by how over the Gaza war is in the eyes of Israelis, even though it is very much not over for Palestinians. I think this is a normal way of handling the trauma of the hostages and their final release. But it is something I think we need to resist.



--
"Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World" - read sections and learn more at: neohasid.org/KAE/. For old-world nigunim, new feminist liturgy and eco-liturgy, and eco-Torah, go to neohasid.org.