Tisha bAv 5773NIGGUNThinking About TimeThink of a sunrise, a whole day, sunset and then night. That is a longtime. Now think of three hundred and sixty-five sunrises, whole days,sunsets and nights with rain, with snow, with flowers or falling leaves, andyou have thought of a year.Now think about the city of Jerusalem. It has existed for four thousand years. For the first one thousand years it was so small and faraway that hardly anyone knew anything about it. The first one thousandyears. That is the first three hundred and sixty-five thousand days. Threehundred and sixty-five thousand sunrises and sunsets. That is season afterseason after season after season until you are bound to lose count. Andfour thousand years is four times as long as that. Let us just say that longago, very long ago, very, very, long, long ago, the story of this city began tobegin.Karla KuskinTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 1READERThe morning is different, noon is different, sunset is different. Another city has emerged. War time city. War time country. War time mornings, war time noons. Siege time city, siege time morning, siege time sunsets. We are in a different geography of time, of agency, we are besieged, captive, hostage. Rasha Salti, Beirut, LebanonREADERA history lessonThe place on which Abraham erected the altar he called Yireh, for it wouldbe theabiding-place to know and serve God. But Shem and his peoplealready lived there, and call the place Shalem, Place of Peace.God would not give offense to either Abraham or Shem, and so united thetwo into a single name, Yirushalayim, Jerusalem, an expansive dream of asingle city that can embrace and honor both peoples and both visions.adapted from The Legends of the JewsREADERI will tell you a story ..A story that lived in the dreams of people .. A story that comes out of the world of tents ..Was made by hunger, and decorated by the dark nightsIn my country, and my country is a handful of refugees ..Kamal NasirTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 21Alas, how solitary does the city sit that wasso full of people.How she is become as a widow,She that was great among the nations, and princessamong the provinces,How is she become tributary.Lamentations 1c_v n_ a _ + +v_ - : _ :_ a -_ a v_| -_ ; n_ +_ v c t_ a n_ a _ + -_s_ 3:_ ; -_ n_ - t_ 3_: -_ n_ -nts: 3_ aREADERBy driving me up to the mountains, my parents ran the risk of not coming back toBeirut, not if things got worse while they were away. Only a short time to pack what Ifound to be essential were a few pictures, my laptop and cell phone, my diploma andenough clothes for a few days.While I collected my things, I watched my mother andfather frantically scan through their files picking out valuable documents in case theirreturn was precluded. Property deeds, bank accounts, diplomas. [My father] wasnoticeably quiet. I only heard him say once in disbelief I can't believe its gotten tothis. R., from Beirut, LebanonTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 3READERO land of ours where our childhood passedLike dreams in the shade of the orange-grove,Among the almond-trees in the valleysRemember us now wanderingAmong the thorns of the desert,Wandering in rocky mountains;Remember us nowIn the tumult of cities beyond deserts and seas;Remember usWith our eyes full of dustThat never clears in our ceaseless wandering.They crushed the flowers on the hills around us,Destroyed the houses over our heads,Scattered our torn remains,Then unfolded the desert before us,With valleys writhing in hungerAnd blue shadows shattered into red thornsBent over corpses left as prey for falcon and crow.Is it from your hills that the angels sang to the shepherdsOf peace on earth and goodwill among men?Jabra Ibrahim Jabrafrom In the deserts of exileSING JERUSALEM BY ANTJE DUVEKOTTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 4 Three Times Over, and Still It Continues: Destroying Jerusalem

Assembled, edited, and written by Elliott batTzedekA reading for four voices:Voice 1: recounts the destruction of Jerusalem and slaughter of the king and inhabitants bythe Israelites, led by Judah.Material from Judges Chapter 1Voice 2: recounts the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.Materials from KingsII Chapter 25Voice 3: recounts the destruction of Jerusalem and slaughter of the rulers and inhabitantsby the Romans.Materials from Lamentations and Josephus.Voice 4: calls for justice soon and in our day, written by Elliott batTzedekVoice One:1And it came to pass, after the death of Joshua, that the people of Israelasked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first,to fight against them?2And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; behold, I have delivered the landinto his hand.3And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, thatwe may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you intoyour lot. So Simeon went with him.4And Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and thePerizzites into their hand; and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousandmen.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 5Voice Two:1And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, inthe tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came,he, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it; and theybuilt a siege wall around against it.3And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city,and there was no bread for the people of the land.4And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by theway of the gate between two walls [...]6And they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Riblah;and gave they judgment upon him.7And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyesof Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of bronze, and carried him toBabylon.Voice Three:8How is the Lord minded to bring down in ruinsthe wall of the daughter of Zion.He has stretched out a line,He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying:Therefore He has made trench and rampart to lament,they languished together.9Into the ground her gates are sunk.He has destroyed and broken her bar.Voice Two:Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 69And he burned the house of the Lord, and the kings house, and all thehouses of Jerusalem, and every great mans house burned he with fire.10And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of theguard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.Voice Three:One would have thought that the hill itself, on which the Temple stood,was seething hot from its base, it was so full of fire on every side; and yetthe blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were slainwere more in number than those that slew them. And the ground wasnowhere visible for the dead bodies that lay on it.Voice One:8And the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck itwith the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.Voice Two:11And the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the fugitives whofell to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, didNebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.21And the king of Babylon struck them, and killed them at Riblah in theland of Hamath. And Judah was carried away from their land.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 7Voice Four:Homes destroyed.Orchards flattened.Buses and markets and buildingsand childrenbombed.Water tanks overturned,and water, the breath of life to the desert,spilled into the cracks of the dry and desperate Av earth.May I build a house on my land?NoMay I travel from here to herewithout fear?NoMay I have any assurance that my children will grow upto be neither killed nor killers?NoMay I demand any way other than defend or destroy,pillage or starve?NoHow many times did Pharaoh sayNobefore we created our own liberation?Destruction after destruction after destruction;It is time for history to recordsomeone saving Jerusalem.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 8SING Yerushalayim Shel ZahavNaomi ShemerAvir harim zalul kayayin Ve-rei'ah oranim Nissa be-ru'ah ha'arbayim Im kol pa'amonim U-ve-tardemat ilan va-even Shvuyah ba-halomah Ha-ir asher badad yoshevet U-ve-libbah homah Yerushalayim shel zahav Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or Ha-lo le-khol shirayikh Ani kinnor.Akh be-vo'i ha-yom la-shir lakh Ve-lakh likshor ketarim Katonti mi-ze'ir bana'ikh U-me-aharon ha-meshorerim Ki shemekh zorev et ha-sefatayim Ke-neshikat saraf Im eshkakhekh Yerushalayim Asher kullah zahavYerushalayim shel zahav Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or Ha-lo le-khol shirayikh Ani kinnor.Mountain air as clear as wine and the scent of pine, borne on the evening wind with thesound of bells. And in the slumber of trees and stone, imprisoned in her dream is thecity which dwells alone, a wall within her heart. Jerusalem of gold, of copper and oflight, behold I am a harp for all your songs. How have the cisterns dried out, the marketsquare is empty and none go to the Temple Mount in the Old City. Through the cavesin the rocks the winds howl, and none go down to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho. Butwhen I come today to sing unto you and to bind garlands for you, I become smallerthan the youngest of your children, or the least of the poets. For your name burns thelips like the kiss of a seraph, let me not forget thee O Jerusalem that is all of gold.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 9READERInthe deserts of exile, spring after spring passes...What are doing with our loveWhile our eyes are full of frost and dust?Jabra Ibrahim JabraREADERI open the map of the worldsearching for a village I lost, searching in the pockets of a grandfather I never got to knowfor fragments of tales and rare fragrances.Anton ShammasREADERWhat ails my heart! wherever I go itsadly cries:Alas my homeland!Whatever opulence in life he gains,derision for that life is his only response.Mahmud Al-HutREADERAlways there is migrationon this restless planeteverywherethere is displacementsomewheresomeone is always telling someone elseto move on to go elsewhere.Irena KlepfiszREADER I come from there and I havememories [...]Mine is the moon at the far edge of thewords,And the bounty of birds,And the immortal olive tree.[...] I walked this land before theswordsTurned its living body into a laden table.Mahmoud DarwishREADERMy heart is in the Eastand I am in the faraway West.Yehuda HaleviTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 10When I spoke to youabout griefI forgot to sayhow large grief ishow to suffer itis to descend into a canyon.You will look upward for milesat ancient wallsas if at an unfathomable historythat is your history tooand just beginning totake shape in your mind.Susan Griffinfrom KaddishAbout Israel I always knewChanukah we lit candles saidno prayers but got presentsred sweatersball bearingssangno songs but Hatikvahplayed on the menorah likeit was our song I knew I belonged to JewsI knew I was part of Israeland so I doand so I amand so, when I heard about children womenfamilies shot stabbed at the table in ShatillaSabraI couldnt breatheand I was almosttoo afraid tomournlet me be plainJews sent up flaresfor christiansto kill bylet me absorbyes they are mensoldiersalso, my peoplemy fatherlovedall things Jewishand should I disown?Melanie Kaye/KantrowitzTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 11Oh our village!I sent to you flocks of birds.To them I said:When you reach our village beside the river,Alight awhile, and tell our home all aboutour grief.Tell it we would not be alivewere it not for our hope of tomorrow.Yusuf al-Khatiband the yearning itself is JerusalemIsaac RosenfeldREADERIts only 4 km from my house to the camp. The first half of the waywas manageable, but as we approached the camp it seemed to me from thefirst impression as if haunted by ghosts. No one can enter the area, as it is extremely dangerous, with thebombed airport on one side and the now totally destroyed Shia suburbs onthe other. It was a scene of total devastation with all the buildings androads totally smashed. I was shocked and overwhelmed. There was the smell of death and destruction everywhere.OlfatMahmoud,BorjElBarajnehrefugeecampBeirut,Lebanon7/15/2006It is not real, they tell us,this home we long forbut a dream of a placethat neverexisted.But it is so familiar!And the longing in us isourselves.Susan GriffinTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 12Psalms Chapter 1371. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we also wept, when weremembered Zion.2. We hung our lyres on the willows in its midst.3. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song;and those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one ofthe songs of Zion.4. How shall we sing the Lords song in a foreign land?5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.6. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.7. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem; whosaid Raze it, raze it, to its foundation.8. O daughter of Babylon, you are to be destroyed!Happy shall be he, who repays you for what you have done to us!9. Happy shall be he, who takes your little onesand dashes them against the rockflw wxt-_ ;tn a c a_ +_v:_va (t yn ts + ;_t a ts ;_ ac_ ts a_ v_ c_ v : a_ a | nt+_- _s:_v+ v 3 ts_ : t+ v -_ c 3 v ts:_:tnt + v + a+ ts atv tst : v c_ v ; ts nt+s ; ts:_ n s3 c_ ; v n c _:_ vt+ c_; v c- +_ ;s n_ 3 :_ :_ v -_t- + vn + v_s : (t yv + :_ v c_:_ vt +n -:_v _ :c ; + ;t :c ; c: | stv:_ a : nt-_ a :t t_ - :_ v t+_v | t+_v c+ 3 _ - c_:_ vt+ ct n ct: s a: | - _t- + ;tt n_ c 3 vt c v | + v_ t ts_: n:_ 3 _ v :t3 n _ :c:_ v v + v_ -_ :t: v_ - : a_ an_ acv_:_ t_ -: _:_: vn ; :stSINGBy the waters, the waters of BabylonWe lay down and wept, and wept for ZionWe remember thee, remember thee, remember thee ZionTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 13READERO lost paradise! for us you were never too small,but now vast countries have become too small for usMahmud Al-HutREADERWhere we see no image of justicethe word injustice reminds us of what we want.Inside, this wordmakes circles like the hungry who cannot stop seeking, who stumbleover mountains, through deserts.Susan GriffinREADERhidden one, Shekhina,open your wings, instruct ussay what we are [...]we who thirst for your newinstructions, source of lifecome into our thoughtsour mouth. Speak to usvoice of the belovedhelp ussay what we aresay what we are to doAlicia OstrikerTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 14Jerusalem SongLisa Suhair MajajYour walls fold gently,a wingspanembracing the dreaming city.Your air drifts with the odor of incense,womens voices floating upwards,a twist of prayer toward heavens ear.I hold your name beneath my tonguelike a seedslipped into the mouth for safekeeping.Jerusalem, fold me like a handkerchiefinto your bosom. I amone word in a lovers letter,a chip of blue tile in your sky.Even those who have never seen youwalk your streets at night.We wipe your dust from our feeteach morning, rise from our beds weariedby the long distanceswe have traveled to reach you.See how we save even the broken bits of pottery,fitting fragments togetheralong jagged lines to remember youJerusalem, we are fledglingscrying for a nest!Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 15READERAfter Psalm 137Anne PorterWe're still in Babylon butWe do not weepWhy should we weep?We have forgottenHow to weepWe've sold our harpsAnd bought ourselves machinesThat do our singing for usAnd who remembers nowThe songs we sang in Zion?We have got used to exileWe hardly noticeOur captivityFor some of usThere are such comforts hereSuch luxuriesEven a guardTo keep the beggarsFrom annoying usJerusalemWe have forgotten you.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 16READERNight.Jerusalem.Yerushalayim.Jerusalem.If I forget theeOh Jerusalem Jerusalem HebronRamallah Nablus Qattana Jenin if Iforget thee oh JerusalemOh Hebron may I forgetmy own past my painthe depth of my sorrows.Irena KlepfiszSINGOn the willows therewe hung up our lyresfor our captors there requiredof us song, and our tormentors, mirth.Saying, Sing us one of those sings of Zion.But how can we sing, sing the Lords songin a foreign land?Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 17READER1Remember, O Lord,what is come upon us.Consider and behold our disgrace.2Our inheritancehas been turned over to strangers,Our houses to aliens.Lamentations 5d wxt- +t -_ t a_ -j _ t a_ - ts_: -__ -- 3 -_t- + ;t ts n_: + cn c + ;_s: ts n_ a c+_t: -_ ;: -s ts n_:_c_saREADER1Pay heed, O Lord,to what we bring upon usconsider and behold our disgrace2When we live from the inheritanceof othersWhen we claim homes and lands as ours aloneand claim any people are alien.Elliott batTzedekTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 18Enough for MeEnough for me to die on her earthbe buried in herto melt and vanish into her soilthen sprout forth as a flowerplayed with by a child from mycountry.Enough for me to remainin my countrys embraceto be in her close as a handful of dusta sprig of grassa flower.Fadwa TuqanI think of the women who sailed to Palestineyears before I was bornhalutzot, pioneersbelieving in a new lifesocialists, anarchists, jeeredas excitable, sharp of tonguetoo filled with lifewanting equality in the promised landcarrying the broken promisesof Zionism in their heartsalong with the broken promisesof communism, anarchismmakers of miracle who expectedmiraclesas stubbornly as any housewife doesthat the life she gives her life toshall not be cheapthat the life she gives her life toshall not turn on herthat the life she gives her life toshall want an end to sufferingZion by itself is not enough.Adrienne RichTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 19SINGFinlandialyrics by Lloys Stone, music by Jean SibeliusThis is my song, O God of all the nationsA song of peace, for lands afar and mineThis is my home, the country where my heart isHere are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrineBut other hearts in other lands are beatingWith hopes and dreams as true and high as mineMy country's skies are bluer than the oceanAnd sunlight beams on clover leaf and pineBut other lands have sunlight too, and cloverAnd skies are everywhere as blue as mineO hear my song, thou God of all the nationsA song of peace for their land and for mineTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 20ctn_ v+_ / Mourners Kaddish: 3_t - ntv + ; + a : _ 3:_v a _ a _ + - 3 v v_ +_ nt : _ +_ na+_ ( _ 3t at _:__v_ a : _ +v n a :_; : _ cat (t; 3t at (t;_ c a - nt;:_ 3( 3_ t+ 3 _ _ 3:_v 3:_v:t c_:_v: _ +_ a 3 _ a _ + - 3 v -:_:_ - nt -:_v nt + _ +_ - nt v_s nt c_ 3t+ nt +_ _: nt c_ a_ n vt _ +_ a n_ n_ c a v n _ n_ +vt _ n_; + a :_; (3 _:v: t- + a _ v : + - 3 v( 3_ t+ 3 t _ 3:_v a ( _ +3_ _ + _ n_ 3 cst( 3 t+ 3 t : _ + v :_; :_vt ts:_v c_ ct _ _ 3 v (3 _ a _ + _ 3_: v -:_vt : _ + v :_; :_vt ts:_v ct:_ v - v_v_ t- t _ 3t+ 3 a ct:_ v - vtv 3_ t+ 3 t : a n a vt :_; :_vt : _ 3 v :_; .o Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey rababealma divra hiruty veyamlih malhuteybehayeyhon uvyomeyhon uvhayey dehol beyt yisraelbaagala uvizman kariv veimru amen.Yehey shemey raba mevarah lealam ulalmey almaya.Yitbarah veyistabah veyitpaar veyitromam veyitnasey veyit-hadar veyitaleh veyit-halal shemeydekudsha berih hu leela min kol birhata veshirata tushbehata venehemata daamiran bealmaveimru amen.Yehey shelama raba min shemaya vehayim Aleynu veal kol yisrael veimru amen.Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom Aleynu veal kol yisrael veal kol yishmael veal kolyoshvey tevel veimru amen.Tisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 21Mourners KaddishElliott batTzedekSo often am I lost,yet through the pall, yet through the tarnish, show me the way back,through my betrayals, my dismay, my hearts leak, my minds sway,eyes broken glow, groan of the soulwhich convey all that isnt real,for every soul to These Hands careen. And let us say, amen.Say you will show me the way back, my Rock, my Alarm. Lead the way,Oh my YahAnd yet in shock and yet in shame and yet in awe and yet to roam and yet to stay and yet right here and yet away and yet Halleluyah!my heartbeat speaks, for You live in all this murk and too in the clear andtoo in our wreckage. You are the mirror of our souls, let us say: amenLife may harm me, rob me, ream me raw, try me, even slay meOver all You will prevail.And let us say: AmenSay You shall loan me a tomorrow, Say You shall loan another day to allwho are called Yisrael and all called Yishmael and all called We and They,and let us say, AmenTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 22READERlet me be strong as historylet me join those who refuselet there be timelet it be possiblelet no faction keep mefrom those who sufferlet no faction keep me from those who needed a homeand found one[let no faction keep me from those who had homesand lost them: stolen, walled off, razed, occupied]let no faction keep me from thosewho need a home nowMelanie Kaye/Kantrowitz[Elliott batTzedek]SINGFrom Ellas Songmusic and chorus lyric by Bernice Johnson Reagonverse lyric from Melanie Kaye/KantrowitzWe who believe in freedom cannot restWe who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comesLet me strong as history, let me join those who refuseLet there be time, let it be possibleTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 23ALLWe begin wherever we can. We begin in our thoughts, in our one-on-one interactions, in our choicesabout how we will use what privilege we have. We begin by talking about it. We begin with awareness. We begin over and over and over. We begin by listening, by hearing our grief, our rage, our arrogance, ourignorance, our brainwashing.And beginning is no small thing.Carolyn GageTisha BAv 5773compiled and written by Elliott batTzedek 24