Tisha B’Av After October 7th: Reflecting on New Tragedies

How Can the First Tisha B’Av After October 7th Transform Our Understanding of the Day?

By Talya Goldman | 18 August 2024 | 5 Minute Read

The Challenge of Tisha B'Av After October 7th

Tisha B’Av is traditionally a day of fasting and mourning for the Jewish People, commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem and other calamities that have befallen us through the centuries. In years past, we might have been more focused on our physical hunger pangs than the deeper pain of these past losses. However, this year, our mourning feels different. The tragedy of October 7th has left us doubled over with an acute, searing pain.

The events of October 7th have brought us face-to-face with raw, national mourning, making this year’s Tisha B’Av observance more poignant and immediate. Perhaps for the first time, we are confronting Tisha B’Av with a different kind of pang—already immersed in the throes of suffering. But how do we relate to God from a place of pain and sorrow?

Rabbi Fohrman’s new 5-part animated course, “Tisha B’Av After October 7th,” emerged from his own wrestling with this profound question, and search for comfort amidst this uniquely challenging Tisha B’Av. This course isn't an explicit attempt to process the events of that terrible day. Instead, it’s a personal exploration of what Tisha B'Av might mean to us now in what feels like a changed world.