Each summer, for three weeks, many Jews around the world engage in an ancient and communal act of mourning — culminating in a full fast on the 9th of Av, or Tisha b’Av. This day marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., respectively. But for most contemporary Jews, especially those who didn’t grow up observant, the events feel so remote, the rituals so foreign, that the grief might seem abstract — if not confusing.
So why do some of us still feel it?
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