A shiur for Tisha B’Av – rather than studying Megillat Eikha, the classic text of destruction, we will instead look at the before and after. We will begin with the historical background and context to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., examining the ‘Jerusalem myth’, the notion that had taken hold over the previous centuries that the city could never fall, and then move to the post-script, studying the midrashic commentary to Eikha of Megillat Eikha Rabba, which subverts, undermines, and rewrites the Megilla to replace themes of destruction and despair with ones of comfort and continuity. As such, it can be listened to as two separate shiurim if you don’t have time for the whole. Based on shiurim by my teacher by my teacher Dr Yael Ziegler, and given at South Hampstead Synagogue’s ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ learning event, June 2014
For audio click here, and for sourcesheet: click here
joe wolfson 