„But in national mourning every Jewish soul will wrap itself in sorrow…”

We now begin a month in the first part of which we diminish our joy. And after the days of mourning, we increase in love. Our mourning is part of the work of our identity; it is part of our nationhood and of our bond to the past, the present, and the future. We do not weep only over what has been lost, but over what we lose at each and every moment on account of that loss. And all who mourn for Jerusalem merit and see in her joy. For part of our work in restoring our glory is that we give a place also to mourning, to weeping, and to sorrow.