In all of our history,
With all that we have been through,
The month of Av stands alone…
Going back to the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple,
Back even before that,
Back to a time that we stood
Gazing upon the promised land,
Afraid to enter,
Afraid of what we had been told,
Ever since that trial of faith,
Av has stood alone…
The litany of evils is long and harsh,
The list of wrongs done to us is cruel
The worst of things continue even today.
Tisha B’Av is a day we fast,
A day we mourn,
A day we remember.
Tisha B’Av calls to us,
With echoing voices from long ago,
Voices lost as sword upon sword fell.
Yet, those voices call with a message,
A message of strength not loss,
Av does indeed stand alone…
If I were to tell of all we have lost
If I were to recount the destruction
If I were to enumerate the horrors,
Relive all the pain and the tears,
I would be telling you truth,
But I would be promoting a lie.
You see there is always another side,
To every story, every tale
Every detail and every recounting,
Because in the telling of what we mourn,
We must also find reason to celebrate,
A reason to find joy in knowing we survive.
In all of our history,
With all that we have been through,
The month of Av does indeed stand alone…
And so today, as we fast and pray,
As we allow ourselves to mourn the losses,
We must also remember to celebrate…
We must acknowledge the miracle of survival,
Despite the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple,
Despite the ovens, and rampant antisemitism,
Despite all of that and so much more
We, stand here today…
We stand ready and able to testify,
To the truth of our survival,
To the proof that Adonai shelters us,
Even through the most devastating of storms.
And that is why,
The month of Av,
Has and always will,
Stand alone…
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