Lamentations is considered one of the five megillot (scrolls) in the Hebrew Bible along with the Books of Esther, Song of Songs, Ruth, and Ecclesiastes which collectively comprise the Ketuvim, or section of the Bible referring to writings.
Often the book is referred to as the Megillat Eicha (the scroll of Eicha, with eicha being the first word in the book; eicha translates from the Hebrew to the English as “how.”)
The question of “how” is often pondered and lamented on Tisha B’Av, not so much in the sense of why did Nebuchadnezzar seek to destroy the Temple and other parts of Jerusalem, not so much why the Romans did what they did, but why in a deeper philosophical and profoundly spiritual sense: how did God allow such a thing to happen to His people in His holy land? “How” can this be the God who loves and redeems the House of Israel when such things happen? “How” do these things happen to the Jewish people and Children of Israel in their own glorious city?
--Written by Erin Parfet.
