Tisha B'Av

Please join Congregation Tiferet Israel this Tisha B'Av.  We start with Eicha and Kinnot Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM, followed by selected Kinnot Thursday morning at 7:30 AM.  In the afternoon we will have a special program at 4:15 PM featuring a lecture by Dr. Jake Wolfson followed by Mincha and a shiur by Rabbi Dan.  All these will be virtual accessible via Zoom. Full details on how to access these programs are listed in the schedule below.

Our Tisha B'Av learning program features a lecture led by CTI's own Dr. Jake Wolfson. Dr. Wolfson will discuss, "Is it Kosher to Refer to the Six Million as Martyrs? Wrestling with a Torah-centered Understanding of the Shoah." This program will explore some disparate perspectives on the topic of martyrdom when applied to the Shoah, as seen through a lens of resisting the problematic trend of de-Judaizing Jewish history. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about and discuss the experiences of a few Jews whose stories can help illuminate the meanings of Jewish martyrdom and what came under assault in the Shoah. 

Dr. Wolfson is the Director of Education for the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission (THGC). In this role, he designs resources, consults with partner organizations, advises and trains educators, and speaks on school campuses and at academic conferences and community events. A certified teacher, he completed over 150 hours of professional development on teaching about the Holocaust and genocides. He has taught college, high school, middle school, and elementary school courses in public, private, and religious school settings throughout Texas. He was the first recipient of the Belofsky Fellowship in Holocaust Studies from the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Following Mincha, please join Rabbi Dan at 5:30 PM for his Tisha B'Av Shiur, "Baseless Hatred Has a Basis: Cancel Culture, Inclusivity and Selfless Service." In this shiur, we will explore what Baseless Hatred (Seenat Chinam) actually means. How could the "pious" Jews of the Second Temple be guilty of it if they kept Torah and mitzvot? Why do our Sages equate Seenat Chinam with the Three Cardinal Sins of Judaism? Is hatred ever actually baseless? How do the lessons of Tisha b'Av inform the way we act today? Does Baseless Hatred have anything to do with Cancel Culture? What can it teach us about the importance of inclusivity, and how does learning about the true nature of Seenat Chinam help us focus on the value of selfless service? To find out the answers to these questions and more, please check out this shiur!

We will be reciting Kinot on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.  A subset of all of the Kinot is available from Koren Press, including commentary from Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, excerpted from The Lookstein Edition of The Koren Mesorot Harav Kinot.  To see the excerpt, click here. You can also find Megilat Eicha in this excerpt.

• To download the Kinot for Wednesday evening click here.  For reference we will be reciting Kinot 1, 3, 4 and 5. You can join the Zoom Meeting Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM by clicking here or dialing 346-248-7799 and entering 812 5063 0016 as the Meeting ID and 611755 as the passcode.
• To download the Kinot we will be reciting on Thursday morning, click here.  For reference we will be reciting Kinot 11, 21, 41, 48 and 45. You can join the Zoom Meeting Thursday morning at 7:30 AM by clicking here or dialing 346-248-7799 and entering 825 0583 5228 as the Meeting ID and 423803 as the passcode.