Like many Jews, I have used the words “synagogue” and “temple” interchangeably. That all changed a number of years ago when a close friend of mine corrected my usage. He told me, in a light but serious way, that we did not belong to a temple. Our Temple was destroyed 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. We were members of a synagogue.

At the time this was not news to me, but what he said did ring painfully true. “Temple” was not merely another word for synagogue. It represented something that was missing.

I never again made the mistake of calling my synagogue a temple. I also came away with a deeper appreciation and understanding of “the saddest day of the Jewish year,” Tisha B’Av—the ninth day of the month of Av on the Hebrew........

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