Though Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av are both fast days, the most serious of the Jewish calendar, they represent opposite religious sensibilities. Tisha B’Av, commemorating the destruction of the Temple, the exile of the Divine Presence from Israel and the end of Jewish sovereignty, is the black hole of Jewish history, a day that begins with despair and only gradually, toward the end of the fast, manages to restore some hope.

Yom Kippur, by contrast, is about spiritual optimism: the power of penitence to evoke forgiveness. Not of God’s distance but closeness to Israel.

This year, in Tel Aviv, Yom Kippur turned into Tisha B’Av, an intimation of destruction.

Read the full blog on Times of Israel.