“A state of brokenness is an opportunity to become something even more beautiful than before.”

This ancient message of Yermiyahu HaNavi echoed within the walls of Yeshivat Noam as, for a second year, students and family members gathered for a meaningful observance of Tisha B’Av. Student-lead tefillot and illuminated kinnot put to words the profound and tragic feelings of the day. Older students and alumni had the opportunity to delve even deeper into the breadth and beauty of the kinnot. Younger students took active roles in connecting to the history and mussar of the period of the Churban. In partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, students applied the dictum in Megilla 14a, “Nevuot whose messages were needed for generations were written [in the Tanakh],” and explored the messages of Yermiyahu’s ancient signs – trying to extract the meaning for this generation. They focused on the psukim of the second sign and saw how a potter took broken clay and repurposed it into something more beautiful than it originally was. Yermiyahu’s message to his generation and us today is that despite our state of brokenness, Hashem can make us even more beautiful than before. Students experienced this firsthand by repurposing broken ceramics into stirring works of art which are now on display in the Yeshivat Noam lobby. After tefillah, those gathered joined hundreds across the community in watching the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation’s inspiring Tisha B’Av video, and they recommitted their efforts to shmirat haLashon.  Their wish is that this be the last mournful Tisha B’Av, and they await national rebuilding into something more beautiful than before.​

By Shira Greenspan, Middle School Educator