Mourning to Dawn: Tisha B'av in America

There are many threads that resonate throughout Jewish history, in one way or another impacting our lives today. Two such threads that have regrettably persisted are destruction and expulsion; so much so, that there is a three-week period dedicated to their contemplation. This year, it began on July 24th, and will conclude on August 14th, with Tisha b’av—a day of mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples, and the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal.

Fortunately, there is another thread that is more powerful than the tragedies commemorated—perseverance. The ability to adapt and rebuild, without forgetting the lessons of the past.

The 1492 Alhambra Decree and subsequent flight of Jews to Holland led to their migration to Brazil, and onto New Amsterdam, establishing in the 1650s the first Jewish congregations in what would one day become the United States. With them, they brought Sephardi tradition, culture, religion and the music of worship.

The observance of Tisha b’av includes a special synagogue service, reading from the book of Lamentations (m’gillat eikha), whose lyric poetry laments the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and describes the national agony, as well as a series of later kinot (elegies) by various medieval Hebrew poets. The 14 elegies contained in the Milken Archive collection are from Sephardi texts that date back to between the 11th and 14th centuries, discovered in a manuscript in Lisbon.

While the subject and substance of the kinot are tragic—recalling tragedies from ancient to contemporary times—the melodies are often upbeat. This contradiction is actually consistent with the tendency of western Sephardi Tisha b’av services to emphasize hope for ultimate redemption and national and spiritual restoration, as part of the recalled collective grief. How fitting it is, then, that this spirit of hope is brought to, and placed as a cornerstone of Jewish life in the new world.

Related Content from the Milken Archive and Beyond

Deeper Meaning Learn more about the music, the artists and the history of the Chants for Tisha b'av on our website.

Broader Horizons Preserving the culture of the Moroccan Sephardic diaspora, the Milken Archive recorded Arvit Morocco by Cantor Aaron Bensoussan

Renewed Hope Now Playing: NYFT's production of Rumshinsky's The Golden Bride embodies the hopes of Eastern European Jews a century ago.