Tisha b’Av may be the most important and least observed of all of the Jewish holidays.
It is the most important because it links Jews to their exilic history — that is, to Jewish tragedy — more viscerally than any other day. Sitting on the floor, in some synagogues in the dark, listening to a dirge, the Scroll of Lamentations, reading poetic remembrances of sufferings (kinot), offers no kiddush, no seder, no sukkah, no Shabbos candles, no cheesecake, no food at all.
The Tisha b’Av fast offers no catharsis of Yom Kippur, which the Talmud calls one of the two happiest days in the Jewish calendar.
What Tisha b’Av does offer is identity, continuity, collective memory, connection and appreciation for all those who kept our people and our religion alive through the countless October 7ths of our history.
This is why Tisha b’Av is so important. It should be more widely observed because “only those who weep over the loss will merit the redemption.”
If ever there were a post-Holocaust time to stop, to listen to the Scroll of Lamentations, it is now. For we too are now survivors. Since Oct. 7, we have written our own lamentations. We too face Jew hatred.
Tisha b’Av is an observance — and a warning.
© IJN 2025
