The Day of Tisha B'Av
Date: Aug 8, 2025
Author: Ruth Saldivar
On the Sunday of Tisha B’Av, after the fasting and lamenting in remembrance of tragedies in Jewish history on Saturday night, a group of us, 35 to be exact, gathered to return our focus to our work on redemption and repair – as it is taught, the messianic age begins on Tisha B’Av and we wanted to do our part. We heard from Fr. Jon Pedigo, the Executive Director of PACT and a Catholic priest of a predominantly working class, Spanish-speaking congregation about the daily struggles with economic marginalization, immigration issues, and racial discrimination that his congregants face.
We started the morning by listening to Fr. Jon in our sanctuary and we asked how we can stand with members of our greater community facing these issues. To learn more we then carpooled to St. Mary’s to join the Sunday Mass Fr. Jon leads with the Spanish speaking congregation.
There was a translator and translation devices for our use.
The church was packed with nearly 1,000 congregants, there was a praise band and singers lead the hymns and an army of volunteers with roles to play in the service and a very upbeat vibe.
We Shir Hadash members sat dispersed among the pews of the packed church with the instruction to connect with those we sat with. Rabbi Rafi shared the sermon time with Fr. Jon.
Rabbi Rafi spoke about repairing the world and totally flummoxed the translator when he said in Hebrew:
- Hinei may tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad,
- How good and pleasant it is when siblings dwell together.
So, Rabbi Rafi asked us to sing out our prayer of fellowship from the pews – and we did.
After the service we had the opportunity to hear from two members of the congregation who shared about their lives and the lives and concerns of their fellow congregants.
We went to bear witness to a community that is also struggling these days and we ended our time together discussing what action we can take to continue to bear witness and improve the world through tikkun olam.