Taproot is an immersive community of Jewish study, embodied practice, ritual, and heartful discussion designed for activists, artists, and changemakers who wish to tap into their Jewish background as a source of resonance, sustenance, and grounding. Reb Irwin is a co-founder and steward of the program and is inviting Ner Shalomers who are so moved to join the Taproot Tisha B’Av events.

Tisha B’Av is our ancient day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. This day also holds the collective grief we have inherited and the grief we are experiencing afresh – the overlapping sorrows of injustice, pandemic, environmental catastrophe, and personal loss of every kind. How do we begin to move grief and to be moved by it? To honor it and let it live in us? To let it inspire and grow our work? 

This is the spiritual opportunity of Tisha B’Av.  Join us for one or, preferably, both of these Taproot Tisha B’Av events – both Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

On Wednesday evening we come together in ritual to chant from Eychah, the Book of Lamentations, and to offer our own words and melodies of lament. We will give voice and body to our grief, longing, and hope, raising it up as a holy response to suffering. It is customary to arrive quietly without joyful greeting and to depart the same way. We also invite you to dim the light as much as possible in the room you'll be joining us from, bring a candle to light, and sit in a low chair or on the floor if that's comfortable for your body. 

Led by Rabbi Diane Elliot, Rabbi Eli Herb, and Reb Irwin Keller.