For These Things I Weep • Coverage and Photo Gallery of the Maariv Prayer and

Anyone who wishes to truly mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple and feel the intensity of the pain and the void of the destruction on Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av) knows that they must come to the Kinnot (lamentations) and Megillat Eichah (the Book of Lamentations) together with the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a. For many years, we have merited on Tisha B'Av to feel the great mourning over the destruction of the Temple, as the Rav, with a voice broken by bitter weeping, cries over the destruction during the Kinnot and Megillat Eichah. This year, 5784 (2024), 1,955 years since the destruction of our Holy Temple, we again merited to deeply feel the great mourning during the prayers, the Kinnot, and Megillat Eichah, which was read with weeping by the Rav shlit"a.

We present to the readers coverage and documentation of the Maariv (evening) prayer and Megillat Eichah on the night of the Tisha B'Av fast:

Today—Monday, the night of Tisha B'Av—the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, came out for the Maariv prayer on the balcony of his home around 8:05 PM and immediately began the Kaddish. After the Kaddish, before Barchu, the Rav began to sing the melody preceding 'Barchu,' and thus the Maariv prayer proceeded. After the Shemoneh Esrei (the silent standing prayer), the Rav waited a short while to allow the large crowd that had arrived from all over the country to finish their Shemoneh Esrei prayer.

After a break of about five minutes, at approximately 8:30 PM, the Rav began reciting the Kaddish following Shemoneh Esrei. Afterward, he sat on a low chair, and after the blessing over the Megillah, he began reading Megillat Eichah from a kosher scroll. Not a single eye remained dry as the Rav read the verses, which bitterly lament the destruction of the Temple, with heart-wrenching weeping. After about thirty minutes, at 9:00 PM, the Rav began reciting the four Kinnot (lamentations) for the night of Tisha B'Av. For each and every Kinna, the Rav shlit"a would start and finish with his pure and holy voice, which stirs the soul. After 25 minutes of Kinnot, which were recited with great spiritual awakening by the Rav together with the entire congregation, the Rav concluded at 9:25 PM with 'U'va L'Tzion' and 'Aleinu L'Shabeach.' He then entered his holy home after an hour and twenty minutes of the Tisha B'Av night prayer service.

Before you is a photo gallery documentation, courtesy of 'Breslov Netzach Netzachim':