The Jew's Lament

The Jews' saddest day is the Ninth of Av, which this year is Tuesday. During a fast as long and stringent as Yom Kippur, the children of Israel chant dirges mourning their alienation from God. Study of sacred texts, excepting certain theodicical and funereal writings, is forbidden, limiting the greatest intellectual expression of a Jew's love of God. The day concludes eight prior days of mourning—those, in turn, embedded in three weeks of solemn reflection. Wherefore this grief?