Tisha b’Av 5781: prayers, poetry, and art for our mourning year
New from Bayit’s Liturgical Arts Working Group comes this collaborative compilation of liturgy, poetry and art for this Tisha b’Av. Here are poems, prayers, artwork, and readings for Tisha b’Av 2021, looking back on the last pandemic year as we sit with what’s broken and nurture the seeds of hope for repair. This offering is organized through the frame of four stages of mourning, evoking both our own personal losses and our communal journey of global grief. Available both as a downloadable PDF and as google slides suitable for streaming / screenshare.
Use them in community — use them to inform your own Tisha b’Av journey — share them widely — we hope they resonate.
(You can find all of the Liturgical Arts Working Group’s offerings on our webpage here.)
Download the collection as a PDF:
9Av 5781 – Our Mourning Year – Bayit [PDF]
And/or download the collection as a deck of google slides:
9Av 5781 from Bayit – Our Mourning Year [SLIDES]
Here are tastes of what’s here, alongside artwork by Steve Silbert and Joanne Fink:
When my mother died,
I was 3000 miles away
On a teen study trip in England.
I’d said goodbye to her at the airport and never saw her again…— from “Kria,” Trisha Arlin
So many died in isolation,
intubated, untouchable.
How did the doctors and nurses
bear their despair?
How can we move through the world
when so many are mourning?…— from “Eicha / How?!,” R. Rachel Barenblat
Stop.
I need to stop. To sit. To feel.
I am not ready to go to a hockey game, or a movie, or a concert.Not after this. A churban, a destruction…
— from “Shiva,” R. Dara Lithwick
How to hold fear for so long
my shoulders learn a new shape.
How to watch numbers climb
higher, and then higher.
How to hold funerals
and kindergarten
over Zoom…— From “How To,” R. Rachel Barenblat
We are sitting on the floor
Crawling, playing rattle, monkey, super parents,
Move organizers, breadwinners, challah bakers,
Stroller pushers…
I am sitting on the floor, and the light’s turned off
As night falls…— From “Rise,” R. Sonja Keren Pilz
Glorious and holy are the possibilities of God.
We’re getting used to the losses
But that’s not the same
As being okay…— From “Yahrzeit 2021,” Trisha Arlin
Birth pangs can’t hear
The toddler’s first words.
Earthbound magma can’t see
The saplings that will root in ash…— from “After,” R. David Evan Markus
Download the collection as a PDF:
9Av 5781 – Our Mourning Year – Bayit [PDF]
And/or download the collection as a deck of google slides:
9Av 5781 from Bayit – Our Mourning Year [SLIDES]
Liturgy and poetry by Trisha Arlin, Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, Joanne Fink, Rabbi Dara Lithwick, Rabbi David Evan Markus, Rabbi Sonja Keren Pilz. Artwork by Joanne Fink and Steve Silbert. Find all of our bios on the Builder Biographies page.
