They were gathering at the conclusion of last weekend’s Shabbat at the Congregation Emanu-El synagogue in downtown Victoria for an evening reading from the Book of Lamentations and the usual chants and prayers to mark Tisha B’Av, the holiest day of mourning in the Jewish calendar.
It’s a time of fasting and reflection that marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, and the tribulations that followed the Jews down through the ages.
