Three Weeks of Poetry: A Closer Look at the Kinnot

This kinnah provides eyewitness accounts of the destruction of the flourishing communities of  Speyer, Worms sand Magence. We will discuss the heart rendering debates as to the appropriateness of committing suicide of oneself and family rather than submit to forced conversion.

In today’s kinnah we focus on the sale into slavery of the son and daughter of Rabbi Yishmael and their tragic deaths. 

The story of the 10 martyrs is recounted–in very different ways–twice a year. Once on Yom Kippur and again on Tisha b’Av. We will discuss the links between the story of Yosef, making a widow wait and the deaths of Rabbi Yishamel and Rabbi Shimon.

How do we make peace with our own failings? What do we do when we desire mercy but receive Justice?

Despite the fact that God does not keep His word, the paytan lays the blame on the Jewish people. How can the covenant remain intact when promises are broken?

The real human cost of the destructions of the temples is sometimes lost in our desire to make it meaningful for Judaism as a whole. Rav Elazar Hakalir brings us right back into the awful pain and hunger of the day.

Despite the wanton destruction of all the is sacred Titus decided not to destroy the western wall. In this kinnah we will learn why and discuss how a heavenly voice tries to awaken God.

In this kinnah we ask G-d why He does not fulfil His promises. Yet at the same time we discuss why the destruction of the Temple is a reason for joyous song.

There was no greater leader since Moshe Rabbeinu. Then one fateful decision cost him his life. Why did one of Judah's greatest kings ignore Yirmiyahu's warning—and what can his tragic mistake teach us about the limits of conviction and the necessity of humility?

The Temple fell because of war. But this Kinah says something darker: we destroyed it from within. We had everything, community, purpose, daily ritual, and we threw it away. This is the mourning of a people who woke up too late to what they'd lost.