During this day of Tish’ah Be’Av, year 5778, the songs of mourning, the kinot, are more relevant than ever, as they siphon from the past directly into our torn land. The chasm that has deepened between the various sections of our Judaism here in Israel, the outrage, fear and blindness that continue to poison the relationship with our neighbors in Ghaza, the arrogance that led out leaders to create a law that alienates so many of our citizens, our minorities that identify with Arabic as their mother tongue, the blindness of heart that led our government to create a law that leaves our gay men with little option of raising a family, and maybe worst of all, our estrangement from the land and sea that provide all life and blessing on earth: the impending gas drilling so dangerously close to our beaches, bound to contaminate the fragile eco-system of the sea. This Kina was recorded in the monastery of Emous, in an event trying to bridge our differences.
Mourn Zion and her cities, like a woman in her birth pains,
And like a maiden wrapped in sack-cloth for the husband of her
youth
[א] Mourn the palace that was abandoned in the sheep’s negligence of its flock,
[ב] and for the coming of the revulsion of God within the Temple’s rooms.
[ג] For the exile of the servants of God, who sing her songs,
[ד] and for their blood that was spilled like the waters of her rivers.