Services at B’nai Abraham are designed to make everyone feel welcome and at home.
The prayers, conducted with Hebrew/English prayer-books, are lively, engaging and inclusive – spiced with inspiring tunes and insightful explanations throughout – allowing all to absorb the experience at their own level. Whether you consider yourself Reform or Conservative, Orthodox or unaffiliated, Sefardi or Ashkenazi, well-versed or unversed; at B’nai Abraham, the labels and classifications fall away – as all stand equally beloved before G-d. Rabbi Goldman’s sermons likewise speak to all participants, and are always topical, relevant, stimulating and enlightening.
The saddest day on the Jewish calendar is the Ninth of Av, “Tisha b’Av,” the date on which both our Holy Temples were destroyed, and exile, persecution and spiritual darkness began.
Tisha b’Av starts at sundown of the eighth of Av and lasts till the following nightfall. During this time-period we fast, eschew pleasurable activities and amenities, and lament the destruction of the Holy Temple and our nation’s exile.
It is a tradition, however, that Tisha b’Av is also the birthday of our Redeemer. This symbolizes the idea that from the ashes of the destroyed temple will rise an incomparably magnificent edifice; exile will give birth to redemption. Thus Tisha b’Av is also a day of anticipation and hope, for “One who mourns Jerusalem will merit seeing her happiness.”
Monday, July 31, Tisha B’Av Eve
Mincha Services: 8:05pm followed by Maariv and
Eicha – Communal Reading of the Book of Lamentations
Tuesday, August 1, Tisha B’Av Morning
Shachrit Morning Services (No Tallit and Tefillin): 7:15 AM
Mincha (with Tallit and Tefillin): 7:
Maariv Evening Service: 8:45 PM
Times of the Fast in Philadelphia
Fast Begins: Monday 8:15 PM
Fast Ends: Tuesday 8:45 PM