This woodcut is from a Yiddish Minhagim book (book of customs) published in Amsterdam in 1723 by Herts Levi Rofe. It depicts prayers in the synagogue on the fast of Tish’ah be-Av (9^th day of Av), the day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Note the flames in the background, a symbolic representation of the burning of the Temple.

 Posted by Shulamith Z. Berger