Rabbi’s Update 8/1/2025
- rabbi423
- Aug 1, 2025
- 4 min read
Dear Friends:
Tisha B’Av is Saturday night and Sunday. This is the only full 25 hour fast day in the Jewish calendar other than Yom Kippur, and it marks the many historic catastrophes which have befallen the Jewish people, especially the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.
I will have something to say about the significance of the day below, but I just want to start with some details about the observance of the day. As we usually do, we will be marking the day together with several other Conservative shuls in our area: Tikvat Israel, Shaare Tefila, B’nai Shalom of Olney, and Kol Shalom. All of the joint services will be held at Tikvat Israel, 2200 Baltimore Rd., Rockville, and will be available on their Zoom link as well.
Services will be at 9:30 tomorrow night and at 9:30 am and 2 pm on Sunday. There is no Kehilat Shalom Zoom havdalah tomorrow night or minyan Sunday morning, but our Sunday evening minyan is as usual.
Here are some details for the ritual observances:
It is a full fast like Yom Kippur, meaning no food or drink and no wearing of leather shoes. If you have a health need to eat or drink, particularly if you take medicines or have been told by your doctor not to fast, then you should do what is medically necessary.
Given that there is now a sovereign Jewish state with Jerusalem as its capital, there is a widespread custom in the Conservative Movement to fast only through Minchah (afternoon services).
Havdalah is not said until Sunday evening at the end of the fast and is said only over wine, no spices or flame.
Tallit and tefillin are not worn Sunday morning. They are worn Sunday afternoon, the only day of the year that this is so, and you can participate in this practice in person at Tikvat Israel or on its Zoom Sunday at 2.
I have written in the past about the difficulty I have had relating to Tisha B’Av given that I don’t particularly mourn the destruction of the Temple. While the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE also symbolizes the loss of Jewish sovereignty, that sovereignty was restored with the Independence of Israel in 1948. But the events of the last nearly two years, since October 7 2023 remind us that the creation of the State of Israel did not, as Herzl and others predicted, solve the “Jewish problem” and did not even resolve the vulnerability of our people in Israel itself. I want to recommend an Op-Ed published earlier this week by Rabbi Daniel Gordis which addresses these questions quite eloquently and, in my opinion, correctly:
I also want to briefly address the situation in Gaza (as much as I would love not to).
A number of years ago I read an article about non-profit management in which I came across a phrase which you may have heard me say: “assigning blame is not the same as fixing the problem.”
A lot of things are factually unclear and others are matters of interpretation. How many people are actually starving or at risk of starvation? I don’t think anyone can say for sure but it is certainly not zero.
Is it the fault of Hamas, of Israel, of the UN, of the Palestinian Authority? I suspect there is enough blame to go around but even if, for the sake of argument, Israel bears zero responsibility for the current situation, people are dying and with control over seventy percent of Gaza as well as most of its borders, Israel has some responsibility for trying to save as many civilian lives as possible (as does the rest of the world). As Rabbi Gordis wrote in the article I linked above: We are still trying to understand the nature of the horror transpiring on the other side of the Gaza border, about which we know much less than we need to . . .we still can’t figure out what responsibility we have for it, but we know there will be an eventual accounting that may bring us deep shame.
As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building.
As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by.
Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Charles L. Arian
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