Book-of-Lamentations
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Tanakh versions:
Throughout this site I may use any of the
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(SEF), three brilliant versions, although JPS-1917 is my preferred version!
Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah =
History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical books -
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or
Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of Daniel, and history
of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please Note: Some alterations
or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’ of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, having been corrected like it once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember
the following truth from our beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO
THE WORD which I command you, NEITHER
SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM IT, that ye may keep
the commandments of יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֵיכֶם - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
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With
Rabbi, Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
Introduction:
The Book of
Lamentations is traditionally attributed to the Prophet Jeremiah, who wrote it as a series of five poetic laments
following the ‘Babylonian destruction of
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The general
conception is that the book of Lamentations, that mourns the destruction of
the first blessed
In actuality,
the widely accepted our view is that Lamentations (or at least the bulk of it)
was penned years before the actual calamitous events it depicts.
The first
Jeremiah, who
was imprisoned at the time (apparently because King Jehoiakim
was tired of listening to Jeremiah’s prophecies foretelling the fall
of Jerusalem), dictated to his devoted student Baruch ben Neriah three chapters,
each chapter consisting of 22 verses, each verse beginning with a different
letter, following the order of the Hebrew alphabet. These chapters vividly and
heart-wrenchingly described the tragedies and calamities that would befall
Baruch wrote
these chapters on a scroll and, at the prophet’s instruction, read them to the
people gathered in the
אֱלֹהִים - Elohim then
instructed Jeremiah to rewrite the prophecies. Jeremiah again dictated the
prophecies to his student, this time adding an additional chapter one that
contained 66 verses, the first three starting with the letter ‘Aleph’, the
next three with a ‘Bet’, Gimmel, Dallet, and so on.
The first
three chapters that Jeremiah wrote constitute chapters 1, 2 and 4
of the book of Lamentations. The 66-verse chapter he added is chapter 3.
Whilst chapter 5, the only chapter that does not have
an alphabetical acrostic, though it too contains 22 verses, was added by
Jeremiah at a later time.
Chapter 4 was
originally composed as a eulogy for King Josiah (Yoshiyahu),
Jehoiakim’s father. Unlike Jehoiakim,
King Josiah was a truly saintly individual, as the Torah testifies.
“Before him
there was no king like him who returned to אֱלֹהִים - Elohim with
all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to the
entire Torah of Moses, and after him no one (of his stature) arose”. II Kings 23:25. (JPS-1917
version of the Tanakh).
And indeed,
seventeen years later, on the ninth of Av in the year 3338 from
creation, tragically our beloved
Ever since,
the book of Lamentations is read every year on the eve of the ‘ninth of
Av’.
May יְהוָה - the LORD Elohim soon comfort us and
usher in the time when we will be doubly consoled with the coming of the
Moshiach and the rebuilding of our beloved
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Here are the Key Aspects of the book:
Structure: It consists of five distinct
poems, with chapters 1-4 written as alphabetic acrostics (each verse or chapter
starting with a successive Hebrew letter).
Themes: The dominant themes are
intense suffering, the destruction of the
Content Highlights: It depicts graphic scenes of
starvation and suffering in
Message of Hope: Despite the despair, the book
contains a pivotal message of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s faithfulness, found in Lamentations
3:22-26, which states that “His mercies never cease”.
22. “Surely יְהוָה
- the LORD’s mercies are not consumed, surely His compassions
fail not. 23. They are new every morning; great is Thy
faithfulness. 24. ‘יְהוָה - the LORD is my portion', saith my soul;
'Therefore will I hope in Him.' 25. יְהוָה - the LORD is good unto them that wait for Him,
to the soul that seeketh Him. 26. It is good that a man should quietly wait for the
salvation of יְהוָה - the LORD”. Lamentations
3:22-26. (JPS-1917 version of the Tanakh).
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This
site was originally created, for those who desired to return to our blessed and
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Remember what אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, blessed be
He, said the following via several of our prophets...
For our Elohim is the One who gave us our ... Life!”
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שָׁלוֹם
עֲלֵיכֶם - Shalom Aleichem - Peace be with you!
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