“How did Be’eri/ turn into my tomb

The day of my light/ to the day of my gloom

Its songs silenced/ trampled fruit and leaf

My eyes well with tears/ from the depth of my grief.” 

– A Lament for Be’eri, Yigal Harush, translation by Sara Daniel

On Monday evening, Jews across the world will gather to hear Megillat Eichah, the Book of Lamentations, referring to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, and read Kinot, additional lamentations, including tragic events after the Second Temple was destroyed, the Crusades period and beyond.

Some congregations in Israel and the Diaspora will have new texts to read about more recent, tragic events of Oct. 7, the greatest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Tzohar, one of Israel’s leading Modern Orthodox rabbinical organizations, disseminated a companion text, in Hebrew and in English, to congregations whose members’ “minds are oscillating between the destruction of the Temple and more recent atrocities of October 7th.” 

In addition to a kinah, lament, written by Israeli musician and poet Yagel Haroush about Be’eri, one of the Gaza border kibbutzim in which Hamas terrorists murdered and kidnapped residents and burned down their homes, Tzohar’s booklet provides new readings and commentary on the traditional kinot relating to the Oct. 7 attack.

The most famous line of the 36th lament is: “Zion, do you not ask how your captives are/ who seek your good, this remnant of your flock?” The poem, written in the 11th century by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, “reverberates with new relevance…We have [115] hostages still in the clutches of Hamas, and the notion of captives or hostages is our daily reality,” Tzohar’s “Kinot Companion” states. 

A page about the 17th kinah, about the horrors inflicted on women and children in the time of the Temple’s destruction, includes quotes from the Talmud that the Romans tied Jewish women’s hair to horses, and a quote from the Special Report of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel about Hamas terrorists dragging women by their hair.

Tzohar’s chairman, Rabbi David Stav, told Jewish Insider that most years, the religious Zionist population in Israel – which believes that the establishment of the Jewish state is an early manifestation of God’s redemption – has difficulty relating to Tisha B’Av and its texts relating to ancient, distant matters.

“For the first time in many years, saying kinot will be much more natural,” Stav said. “Until recently, most of Israeli society felt fine. Things were good for us. We knew there was no Temple, but it didn’t bother most of us that much. We [rabbis] had to explain to Israelis why we have to mourn over there being no Temple. Today, that is not the situation.”

“This year,” Stav continued, “after what we went through, there is not one person who doesn’t feel the need to express the pain that the people of Israel experienced. We wanted prayer to be the place where a person can express the deep pain in the people of Israel.” he said.

Adding a contemporary kina was important to Tzohar’s leadership.

“Mostly Ashkenazi Jews, but not only, had a history of writing new kinot” about tragic events, Stav said, pointing to widely read laments about the destruction of the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz in Germany during the Crusades in 1096 and another about the burning of the Talmud in Paris in 1242.

“There were dozens of kinot written about the Holocaust, but from the Holocaust to [Oct. 7] there was no event similar in its proportions. It was important to express that,” he said.

While in Israel, most congregations simply recite the lamentations, Stav was aware that in the Diaspora it is customary to learn more about them, a custom he hopes more Israeli congregations will adopt this year.

“In the same spirit, of connecting the kinot to what is happening now, we took some that were written 1,000, 1,500 years ago and gave them a contemporary interpretation,” he said.

Stav said he believes Tzohar’s “Kinot Companion” will be used widely in Israeli religious Zionist communities, including his own in the central Israel town of Shoham where he is chief rabbi, as well as in many congregations in the Diaspora. He knew of over 50 Orthodox communities outside Israel that disseminated the booklet, and Tzohar printed over 100,000 copies in Hebrew to send to synagogues throughout Israel.

This year, Stav said, Israelis and Jews who support Israel have “a great feeling of uncertainty … We have to work hard to ensure we can live our lives here in Israel.”

“In that respect, the kinot of Tisha B’Av are a warning … we can’t let this happen again,” he added. “According to our sages, Megillat Eichah was written by Jeremiah to King Jehoiachin before the destruction of the Temple, but he didn’t want to hear it and ripped it up. Now we saw what can happen to us and we should heed the warning and be careful.”