In advance of Tisha B’av, World Mizrachi has launched new videos in their free online video series entitled “Kinot on Location.” In the series, organization representatives based in Israel and around the world provide explanations and insights into the customary prayers read on that day, from sites where specific tragedies have befallen the Jewish people over the ages.
“It is well known that one of the greater challenges with the Tisha Ba’av service is being able to truly connect to the pain and mourning practices of the day when we live in a world where despite the absence of the Beit Hamikdash, Jewish communities are thriving and growing,” says Rabbi Doron Perez, Executive Chairman of World Mizrachi. “The purpose of this series is to assist audiences to better appreciate the destruction via events and places that we can recognize, to personally appreciate that sense of loss.”
The sites chosen for the series span the breadth of Jewish history ranging from locations of the Bar Kochva rebellion and the expulsion of Jews from Israel through to the Crusades, the Holocaust and then the ongoing tragic losses from terror attacks in the twentieth century. The series, which is available online for viewing at any time on the Mizrachi website (https://mizrachi.org/kinotonlocation) features 18 different English films, including a selection in Spanish and French, with presenters including Rabbi Hanoch Teller, Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon, Rabbanit Shani Taragin among others.
Prominent communal leader and historian Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, provided the introduction to the series and explains that the very structure of the kinot is intended to address a basic misconception that underlies the concept of mourning on Tisha Ba’av. “Tisha B’av is not really about mourning the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. The real core mourning and these kinot is a sense of distance that this destruction caused between the people of Israel and our God. This is why we have all these other kinot describing other events throughout history because we need to work on making ourselves better, and in particular to bring us closer to Hashem. We hope and pray that will be expressed in the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash in our days.”
Rabbi Perez added that “these messages are much more critical this year amidst an increasing divisiveness in Israeli society and the Jewish world.”