Lamentations איכה
The lament over ruined Jerusalem, read by candlelight on the night of the ninth of Av.
«How does the city sit alone, once full of people» — the book takes its name from that first word, eicha. Five chapters, four of them alphabetical acrostics, describe Jerusalem after the siege: hunger, mothers who have lost children, broken walls, captives, priests without service, elders sitting on the ground.
Tradition ascribes the book to Yirmeyahu, who warned for forty years and now mourns. Midrash connects eicha to God's question to Adam in Eden — ayeka, «where are you»: the same letters, the same theme of a lost place.
There is no consolation in it except one verse at its centre: «the kindnesses of the Lord have not ceased… they are renewed every morning». By custom the reader does not end on the final harsh verse but returns to the one before: «return us to You and we shall return».