Adina Roth – Head of Jewish Life

This last week was Tisha B’av and  something special took place at Emanuel. Around 15 High School students raised their hands and volunteered to chant the ancient book of Eicha, Lamentations. Believed to have been written by the prophet Jeremiah, Eicha is a lament in response to the destruction of the first Temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In its five chapters, the book paints a picture of desolation. It opens, Chapter 1, Verse 1: Alas! Lonely sits the city/Once great with people!/She that was great among nations/Is become like a widow; The princess among states Is become a thrall.

Our students prepared the slow and mournful tune and words through the July holidays, mastering the ancient and foreign melody. On Tisha B’av the entire High School arrived in non-leather shoes, as is the custom of mourning. They sat in circles in the MPH with electric tealight candles lighting up their circles and they all received handouts with the book of Eicha and modern laments against racism and war. And they listened to their friends chanting our song of sadness, the book of Eicha. Everyone was quiet and respectful and connected to the overarching themes of the day.

Eicha means How?! Although it refers specifically to the Babylonian destruction of our first Temple, it is widely understood that the book is meant to be used as a vehicle to contemplate Jewish suffering throughout the ages and to cry out HOW! The word Eicha repeats throughout the book as we raise our voices and say How! How can it be that we live in a world filled with so much history of antisemitism!! However, we don’t limit this day to a contemplation of Jewish suffering alone. We also use the opportunity of Eicha, or asking How, to think about the suffering, loss and brokenness of our world today. Tisha B’av is a day to think about the modern ills that plague us, from global warming to terra nullius of First Nations people, from racism and patriarchy to all kinds of homophobia. We call out How as a form of protest. We call out How as a wail of sadness and we also cry it out as a call to action.

This day of sadness and reflection is meant to move us into action and audaciously, hope! We end the book of Eicha, Chadesh Yameinu Kekadem, Renew our days, as the days of old. The Hassidic master the Kedushat Levi points out that kedem, the word for before or ‘days of old,’ contains a double meaning. Kadimah also means ahead or forward. At the end of Eicha we do not only long nostalgically for a lost past but we ask for the strength to dream futuristically and to create the kind of world that we want to live in.

Inez Calderon-Havas read out a beautiful modern version of Eicha dedicated to climate change. Her powerful speech, which moved all the students, can be read below my article.

It is not easy to stand up and chant Torah in front of your friends – and yet by these students making themselves vulnerable, they created a space where we could all sing the sad song of the day. I was so proud of them! This shows the kind of Jewish community that the students can create at Emanuel, a community where they read Torah for each other and are able to create meaningful spaces  of both celebration and activism which spring deep from Jewish roots. In good Jewish fashion, they were rewarded for their efforts (after the fast), with a large choc-chip cookie from the canteen.

May we all find the courage to raise the question How in our lives and in our world, and may we all find the inner strength as well as the communities that can spur us to action and meaningful change! May Emanuel continue to be that kind of community! 

Shabbat Shalom

Inez Calderon-Havas – Year 11
A modern Eicha  

How can it be that our world is being harmed and we aren’t doing enough to save it? We are not only harming the environment and ecosystems, but we are putting our lives in danger too. How can it be that we can ignore the heatwaves across the northern hemisphere? Ignore the floods and fires that happen in our own cities and the deaths that have come from them. 

How can we give temporary solutions to a long-term problem. To feed those in drought-stricken land and leave it to happen again and again. To let people’s houses be lost in fires and floods and not do anything about what is causing it. How is it we can leave people to rebuild time upon time. How can we revel in the warmer winters while others are dying in the heat that only seems to be increasing. It will soon be us and it is already starting.

So how can it be that we are not doing enough about it. To save the future of the plants and animals and to save our future. How can it be that we are killing our home, risking our livelihoods, and leaving our planet to die. It just cannot be.