Daughter Zion has one of the most powerful voices of Tanakh. We hear her cry out in the opening chapters of the Book of Lamentations where she is not afraid to confront God with the evidence. God, she insists, has cruelly brutalized the people Israel.

Lamentations is read annually on Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the both the first and second Temples. The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, in 586    BCE.    The Second Temple was demolished by the Romans, in 70 CE.

The poetry of Lamentations is haunting, sorrowful, seeming, in some respects, to foreshadow the horrific destruction of Jewish life in the twentieth century.

This year, we will engage in special study session of Lamentations on August 9th. If you are interested in joining the conversation, please email Rabbi Barbara at Rabbi.Thiede@or-olam.org and she will send you more information.