We open with Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat and also wept, as we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors asked us for lyrics, our tormentors joy,
“Sing for us, from a song of Zion!”
How can we sing a song of the CAUSE on outsiders’ soil?
If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget.
Let my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you,
if I do not place Jerusalem over the height of my joy.
Remember, o CAUSE, the Edomites, that day — Jerusalem! — they said,
“Strip her, strip her, to her foundations!”
O you of Babylon, you despoiler, happy is the one who pays you back,
who does to you what you did to us!
Happy be the one who grabs and smashes your babies against the rocks!

It is our custom to eat the pre-fast meal for the Ninth of Av alone, and thus we do not say a zimmun,
but rather every person immediately reads the first blessing.

Blessed are you,
CAUSE our God,
Sovereign of Eternity,
who feeds the whole world…
א We the children of your people are all mourners
ב On the day of the burning of Your Holy House
ג Great sages were killed in Your House
ד Their blood spills, and I shout, How!?
As it is said: How she sits alone,
the city great with people is as a widow;
great with nations, princess of lands, is as a serf! (Lamentations 1:1)
ה Is it for this that You chose us from all the peoples?
ו And is it like this that our lot will be for all days?
ז Remember us and provide for us amongst the nations!
ח Gaze upon our shame and annul it forever!
As it is said: Remember, CAUSE, what has become of us;
gaze upon and see our shame! (Lamentations 5:1)
And it is said: You open Your hand
and sate all life as desired. (Psalms 145:16)
Blessed are you, CAUSE,
who feeds all.

ט The good of the land is stolen from our hands
י Dwelling afar, in the tents of our enemies
כ Like straw amidst fire, thus our lives are cut off.
ל Why, I cry, why do you eternally forget us?
As it is said: Why do you eternally abandon us;
leave us for so many days? (Lamentations 5:20)
מ Shield and savior, reviver of the dead,
נ Guard our souls and return our judges
ס We trust in You with true faith
פ Worker of wonders, who will hold the destroyers to account.
As it is said: Complete is your iniquity, daughter of Zion,
no longer will God exile you!
Holding your iniquity to account, daughter of Edom,
God will reveal all your sins! (Lamentations 4:22)
And it is said: And you will eat
and be sated
and bless the CAUSE your God over the good land given to you. (Deuteronomy 8:10)
Blessed are you, CAUSE,
for the land and for its food.

ע Answer us, answer us, on the fast day we call!
צ Great trouble hovers over us.
ק They accepted upon ר our heads ש to keep ת our fast
Thus, we read in the scroll of Your prophet, Return us!
As it is said: Return us, CAUSE, to You, that we may return;
make our days new as of old! (Lamentations 5:21)
Comfort, CAUSE our God, the mourners of Zion
And the mourners of Jerusalem,
And the mourners who mourn in mourning this night,
For all Israel is mourning in mourning this night.
Comfort us from our mourning and let us rejoice from our despair.
As it is said: As a man whose mother comforts him,
so to I shall comfort you, and in Jerusalem you will be comforted. (Isaiah 66:13)
And it is said: Builder of Jerusalem is the CAUSE;
gathering the exiles of Israel. (Psalms 147:2)
Blessed are you, CAUSE,
who comforts Zion with the rebuilding of Jerusalem,
amen.

And say the final blessing according to one’s standard practice,
but do not recite the petitionary verses beginning with Ha-raḥaman, “O Merciful One.”