The Evolving Jew

I attended the Modern Orthodox Dad Yomi siuym event in 2012, which was held as an alternative to the massive Charedi-run event, for those who preferred a more MO style. Here's my write-up of the last one: http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2012/08/modern-orthodox-siyum-hashas.html I haven't heard anything yet about a similar event this year, though tickets are already being sold to the big, Charedi-style Siyum in Giants Stadium. Does anyone know if they're holding a MO version this time around? I would love to go again.

From 2010 (slightly edited): There are voices that assert that we should no longer fast on Tisha B'Av, that if we wanted to rebuild the temple, we could simply do so, and that with a rebuilt Israel and a rebuilt Jerusalem, Tisha B'Av should be obsolete. These people certainly have a point. It’s ironic to see people who live in fancy houses in Flatbush, travel to Israel on El Al several times a year, and have full religious freedoms in America begging Hashem to “end the terrible golus!” But there’s another way of looking at it, and it’s the way I choose to look at many of our traditions. What we commemorate on Tisha B’Av isn’t just the loss of the Temple. It isn’t just a yearning for the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt and for sacrifices and a monarchy to be reinstituted. To tell the truth, how likely, practical, or even desirable does that really seem? Instead, it's about something much bigger. We fast because we’ve fasted for 2,000 years. We mourn for the very real peop