This is a tough time of the year to be Jewish.
Colloquially known as “The Three Weeks,” this is the period of time on the Jewish calendar each summer when we commemorate the various stages of the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians and later, the second Temple by the Romans, over 2000 years ago. The three weeks progress in intensity and are bookended by two fast days.
It used to be my embarrassing secret, like a schoolgirl who didn’t actually do her homework. Everyone would be talking about their turkeys, and guest lists, and leftovers, and I’m over here shopping for Shabbos dinner. After a number of years my husband would go buy some smoked turkey and have some on Thursday just so he could tell people he had his Thanksgiving turkey.
In October of 2011, nearly 6 years ago, I wrote a blog post about why Orthodox people have fewer dogs – and some are downright scared of them – than the non-Orthodox. In part:
In my neighborhood, there used to be four large Orthodox congregations: Heights Jewish Center, Young Israel, Green Rd. Synagogue, and Chabad. There was also an ad hoc congregation that had begun in a home, called “Zichron Chaim.” It was commonly referred to as “the shteeble,” which is a Yiddish word for “little house” and refers to a small, organic, grass roots congregation, loosely formed and typically without a rabbi, that meets in a home and then sometimes, if it grows, migrates to a more spacious space.
Elyse Goldstein, in her recent piece, “Why I’m Not Fasting on Tisha B’Av,” makes a number of thoughtful points regarding the upcoming national day of Jewish mourning. I commend her for her principled and intentional living and would like to respond with my own take on some of her themes. She says:
