How is it that Jerusalem is both reunited and rebuilt and yet this book and its chant are still around . . . what is its purpose any longer?
Lamentations …
“Our dancing is turned into mourning.
נָֽפְלָה֙ עֲטֶ֣רֶת רֹאשֵׁ֔נוּ אֽוֹי־נָ֥א לָ֖נוּ כִּ֥י חָטָֽאנוּ׃ The crown has fallen from our head;
Woe to us that we have sinned!
עַל־זֶ֗ה הָיָ֤ה דָוֶה֙ לִבֵּ֔נוּ עַל־אֵ֖לֶּה חָשְׁכ֥וּ עֵינֵֽינוּ׃ Because of this our hearts are sick,
Because of these our eyes are dimmed:
עַ֤ל הַר־צִיּוֹן֙ שֶׁשָּׁמֵ֔ם שׁוּעָלִ֖ים הִלְּכוּ־בֽוֹ׃ {פ}
Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
Jackals prowl over it.”
Is the book still necessary — the chant is close to either manipulative or perhaps even irrelevant . . . why is it still around?
Eichah or Lamentations, depending on your perspective, is either chanted or recited annually on Tisha b’Av, the Ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. The book appears to mourn the destruction of the First Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians (in 586 BCE), and the Second Temple (really the Third Temple), by the Romans in 70 CE.
In the varied Christian traditions, parts of the Book are chanted rather “dirgistically” during the Chr “Holy Week.” — given their predilection of usage — I can see that.
- For comparison, Western Christianity’s use of Lamentations, in the chanted form, (set more specifically to choral music), is used extensively in their Lenten service, known as Tennabrae (which, not unsurprisingly, is Latin for ‘darkness’).
- Taking a look at the Christians of the East — for example, the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox community dirgistically chants the book’s third chapter at the “12th hour of the Good Friday service,” which is a service that commemorates their particular Eastern tradition of the burial of Jesus.
Since we in the Jewish tradition neither use nor utilize every book of the Bible, nor do we commemorate every downfall or destruction, so, given the twists and turns of Jewish history — how is it still relevant to us? Why is it necessary any longer? Given Jewish history, why is it even read, or chanted? Can one find any relevance in it at all?
We will explore that at 7:00 this evening, just a few brief days until the Ninth of Av.
Don’t expect miracles . . . I suspect that miracles are a long time in coming.
Hope to see everyone this evening at 7:00 PM EST . . .
There’s nothing too much to lament when we all gather together . . .
Seth
