3 WEEKS MORE RABBI LAZER BRODY

The old Ashkenazic custom for the Seudat Mafseket, the concluding meal before Tisha B’Av, is to eat a cold hardboiled egg dipped in ashes is deeply rooted in Jewish religious law (see Rama, Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 552:5, and Mishna Brura comments 13-15) and esoteric tradition as well. Hardboiled eggs are the food of mourners, and the ash symbolizes the destruction of our Holy Temple. Together, the egg and the ash are an expression of our mourning for the Holy Temple.