Midrash:

Midrash Rabbah - Megilot 

Holidays:

Tisha Bav 

Nach:

Yirmiyahu 

Description

The most prolific composer of piyyutim, R. Elazar haKalir, who likely lived in the 5-6th century in Eretz Yisrael, was the author of some of the most powerful and evocative religious poetry that we have. In this relatively short קינה (dirge), he builds upon a Midrash in Eikhah Rabbah that involves Yirmiyahu, Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov Moshe - and the four wives of Yaakov. This dialogic poem artfully weaves imagery, language and poetic devices to evoke a powerful image of mourning for the exile - and of mourning with God, as it were, Who ultimately comforts his intercessors with a promise of return and redemption.