Tisha B’Av
When a temple is destroyed we have to ask ourselves who built the bulldozers.
Tisha b’av, which is Hebrew for the 9th of Av, is a major fast day during the Jewish month of Av. The ninth of Av commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as a series of other tragic historical events that befell the Jewish people on Tisha Bav. In addition to the fast on Tisha B’av, there are other laws and customs of observing the day such as observing other mourning customs, reading Eicha (the book of Lamentations), and reading Kinot. The Meaningful Life Center offers deep, yet accessible, insights into Tisha B’av. Our archive of videos and essays will help you to learn not just what the 9th of Av events were, but what their spiritual and mystical ramifications were and how the spiritual dimension of the 9th of Av can enhance your life. Based on the mystical teachings of Chassidus, the insights offered by The Meaningful Life Center about Tisha B’av offer a hopeful vision of the future redemption.
From Destruction to Resurrection
One of the most powerful sights to behold is the regeneration of a forest after it has burned down. Few things are more astounding to witness than renewal after hopelessness and rebirth after death.
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Does God Have a Plan for Us in These Bizarre Times?
Join Rabbi Jacobson on Tisha B’av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, for a heartfelt discussion on pain and suffering, and how God can (and will!) turn it into light and happiness.
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Why Is the World Fighting Over the Temple Mount?
What is it about the Temple Mount that causes the whole world to fight over it? Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a short talk about the Temple Mount, and learn about its mystical and historical significance.
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What Happened as the Flames Rose? Tisha B’Av Workshop
Our sages tell us that Moshiach was born as the flames consuming the Holy Temple. Learn how the Western Wall, with all its cracks, carries immortality.
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Cracks in the Wall – What Can We Do About Israel? — Three Weeks Workshop
Discover how the Israel within your soul experiences its own battles, and how your actions allow you to bring peace to yourself and to the land of Israel.
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To See Through the Eyes of a Mystic – Pre-Tisha B’Av Workshop
Take a journey into the inner worlds of reality. Gaze through the eyes of the Arizal as depicted in his mystical works.
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The Desolate Mountain: When Nothing is Everything. A Pre-Nine Days Workshop
Eye-opening Nine Days Workshop. The mightiest power lays buried in the most unglamorous places. Learn the deceptive nature of material existence.
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Back to the USSR: Dispatch from Moscow
How does Russian history affect our Jewish lives today?
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The Crack In Your Psyche: When Was Dissonance Born?
Is your life fragmented and splintered, with various voices and demands tugging you in different directions? Do you often feel like damaged goods? What can we do about it?
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When Will We Stop Crying? The Deepest Love in the Throes of Suffering – Nine Days Workshop
Address the dramatic events taking place in Israel today. These times allow us to discover the deepest love and strength, to stop crying once and for all.
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Do You Like to Travel? – Israel/Three Weeks Workshop
Learn about the journey of Israel today. Discover new ways to look at your voyages, and how to discern the deeper patterns in the trajectory of your life.
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Comfort My People
Left with no one else to blame, the child erroneously sees himself as the culprit. And this self-loathing and sense of inadequacy further erodes the child’s confidence. It’s not your fault. Don’t allow yourself to be invalidated. You have all the strength necessary to pick up the pieces and rebuild your life.
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Where is G-d When I Cry?
There is such darkness in this world, such unbearable pain, such untold suffering. Where is G-d in all of this?
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Where Is G-d?
A correspondence between Rabbi Jacobson in response to a self-proclaimed agnostic.
Read MoreHow to Repair Our Rifts: The Relevance of Tisha B’Av to our Lives Today
How to Repair Our Rifts: The Relevance of Tisha B’Av to our Lives Today w/ Rabbi Simon Jacobson
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Three Weeks of Pain, Seven of Comfort, & Two of Return
Cracks in our systems shake us up; but a crack also exposes what lies within. We can be demoralized by the cracks or we can attempt to look between the cracks and see an emerging larger picture.
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Five Roots of Trauma Revisited
Using the concepts of The Five Roots of Trauma, this article looks at the five tragic events that took place on the 17th of Tammuz..
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The Five Roots of Trauma
The three weeks between the first attack on the Holy Temple and the final destruction are a time concentrate on healing by addressing the root of the issue.
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Tisha B’Av: A Letter From Rabbi Jacobson
Simon Jacobson’s letter from New York reflecting upon Tisha B’Av and the endurance of Jerusalem and the Jewish people…
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Tisha B’Av: Pain and Pleasure: The Birth of the Future in the Belly of the Beast
Tisha B’av at the Western Wall: Do we see the light at the end of the tunnel? will we have the courage and strength to solve the problem at its root?
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Rebuilding Life After Trauma: A Six-Step Plan
Repair your own life; help to repair the lives of others; strive to champion the entities which supply dignity and purpose to you and to the world.
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The Seven Weeks of Comfort
Learn about the Seven Weeks of Comfort that follow the Three Weeks of Affliction. In these weeks we are comforted over the destruction and loss of the Holy Temple, and they prepare us for rebirth and renewal in the upcoming New Year.
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Shoftim: Abandonment & Reconciliation
Following the destruction of the Temple and the ‘Three Weeks of Affliction,’ come the ‘Seven Weeks of Comfort,’ in which the people are consoled and comforted for their great losses.
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Pinchas: The Best Way to Commemorate September 11
As we begin to commemorate the tragic events of September 11, we are also entering an important period of Jewish mourning: The beginning of the Three Weeks.
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Vaetchanan: Crying For Israel
We cried about Israel upon the spies return, today we continue to cry about the land: Is there a connection between these three millennia of tears?
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Devorim: Pot Boiling
During this difficult time of mourning we look to Samech Vav, the mystical text, for answers to what can be learned from the historical and current events.
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The Power of Rejection
In this week’s Torah portion we read: Devorim – “these are the words that Moses spoke…” in the last 37 days of his life and from him there is much to learn.
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Re’eh: From Jerusalem to New York – Diary
Written from New York, this reflective personal story captures Jerusalem in all its complexity: A city laden with history and ‘quintessential realities’.
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Devarim: Leaders That Unite
We is the saddest nine days of the year concluding with Tisha B’Av, which marks the tragic day both Temples were destroyed, a time to harness unity..
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The Covenant
The following story was told by Rabbi Israel Spira, the Rebbe of Bluzhov, who had witnessed it firsthand in the Janowska Concentration Camp.
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Loneliness
The excitement to jump out of bed knowing that you have a mission to do, something that you’re needed for today, is ultimately the solution to any type of sense of deep loneliness.
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Vaetchanan: Religion and Ethics
What should our attitude and response be when we witness Rabbis arrested in chains?
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Vaetchanan: Comfort My People
Many tears indeed can be shed for our children whose lives are prematurely “hijacked” by the demons of abuse and drugs; bright futures suddenly aborted; robbed of their possibilities; injured psyches.
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The Destruction and Restoration of Dignity
He is still controlled by the dark demon within. He lives in world of shadows, seemingly always on the run. Escaping what? Himself above all. Why they call it “substance abuse” seems odd; it’s not abuse of the substance, but of yours.
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Matos-Masei: 1967: The Summer of Awakening Part II
This week’s essay – a sequel to last week – discusses the power of inspiration and the profound consequences of not acting on a call from above….
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Matos-Massei: Why is Jerusalem Still Burning
Torah chapters read in the Three Weeks of destruction address issues of Jerusalem under siege: the link between Hezbollah and the Babylonians & Romans.
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Devarim: The Laugh
Life is a continuous cycle of troughs and crests, pain and joy, and in order to fully appreciate both, one must learn to ride the waves.
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Matot-Masei: Tzugekumene
Response to a provocative letter: ‘The feeling of “us” and “them” was an undercurrent in the interactions between FFB’s and BT’s or non-observant Jews’.
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