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Enhance your observance of Tisha BAv with new OU book

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This year, with the publication of The Koren Mesorat HARav Kinot by OU Press and Koren Publishers Jerusalem, the Jewish community can experience Tisha B'Av (which falls this year on July 20) with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (known as "the Rav") as his students did for yers. Tisha B'Av is doubly sad for those students--it is the annual day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and also a day on which the absence of their venerated mentor is sorely felt.

For many years, Soloveitchik would spend the better part of Tisha B'Av explaining the kinot, universally recited poems of mourning that describe the tragedies of destruction that have befallen the Jewish people throughout the millennia. These liturgical poems are written in difficult literary Hebrew full of biblical, Tal-mudic and midrashic allusions. With his insight into the historical and religious meanings of these kinot, Soloveitchik brought the texts alive and showed their relevance to the contemporary Jew. His learning sessions added depth and substance to Tisha B'Av, enhancing the day's observances and adding meaning to the mourning. The Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot is designed to enhance the experience of users by giving them a taste of those days with the Rav. The new edition contains a detailed commentary consisting of hundreds of insights distilled from tapes of the Rav's all-day learning sessions, edited by Rabbi Simon Posner, executive editor of OU Press. It also includes an exquisite new English translation of the kinot by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the OU, whose annul Tisha B'Av webcasts and DVDs are widely viewed in synagogues and homes. The edition contains the complete Tisha B'Av service, with prayer texts from the renowned Koren Siddur, accompanied by Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' acclaimed English translation. The complete service is complemented by synopses of the Rav's lectures on the halakhic themes of Tisha B'Av and a section explaining the laws of the extended three-week mourning period prior to and including Tisha B'Av.

This book is the latest offering from OU Press, the publishing house of the Orthodox Union that recently published "Unlocking the Torah Text on Vayikra" by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin and "The Royal Table: Passover Haggadah" by Rabbi Norman Lamm.

Copies of the Kinot, which cost $27.95 each, are available at a dftcount through www.OUPress.org. Bulk orders can be placed by contacting OUPress@ou.org.



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© 2011 Heritage Florida Jewish News Fern Park, Florida. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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