What are we supposed to be mourning on Tisha B'Av?
On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed, as a sign that it would never be rebuilt.
How can we relate to the tragedies that we're supposed to be mourning?
Traditionally, the book of Eichah (Lamentations) is read on Tisha B'Av. In visceral poetry, it describes the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, blaming the iniquities of the Jewish people.
Therefore she is become a mockery.
All who admired her despise her,
For they have seen her disgraced;
And she can only sigh
And shrink back.
And suckle their young;
But my poor people has turned cruel,
Like ostriches of the desert.
What collective misdeeds and cruelties do we carry today?
He has destroyed His Tabernacle;
The LORD has ended in Zion
Festival and sabbath;
In His raging anger He has spurned
King and priest.
How might this text relate to Palestinian oppression?
And let us come back;
Renew our days as of old!
How can we relate to the tautology of the final line here? What new paths can we forge out of past and current injustice?