Lamentations – a Book Born, Written, and Preserved in Pain The biblical Book of Lamentations, a historical reflection of Israel’s first loss of national independence, uniquely confronts despondency, anger, suffering, belief, and disconsolation. These eternal challenges made it a book for all generations, occupying a unique niche in the evolution of Jewish thought, and seen as a foretelling of all future difficulties. This literary commentary explores the tensions and dynamics of this masterpiece, poetry of the highest order.
Comments on Rabbi Segal’s previous commentaries:
On Ecclesiastes – I’ve read every commentary on Kohelet I could find.
Segal’s is the most insightful, most lucid, most persuasive one I have ever
read. (Rabbi Harold Kushner z”l, author)
On Psalms – A new and refreshing look at this wonderful treasure…brings
the psalms’ beauty, joy, ethos, and pathos to the modern reading public.
(Wallace Greene, for Jewish Book Council)
On Song of Songs – A delight for laypeople and scholars alike. The Song of Songs sings again. (Professor Bezalel Porten, Hebrew University)