Wax-Stained Tisha B’Av Texts Illuminate Historical Mourning Rituals

In front of the Coliseum, the religious procession takes place., in Rome, on april 07, 2023. Thousands of people participate and pray at the appointment of the Via Crucis. God poured out His ire “like fire” on the daughter of Zion’s tent. From above, He dispatched an inferno in the narrator’s bones. A “burning blaze” incinerated Jacob. PHOTO BY ANDREA CALANDRA/GETTY IMAGES 

God poured out His ire “like fire” on the daughter of Zion’s tent. From above, He dispatched an inferno in the narrator’s bones. A “burning blaze” incinerated Jacob.

So go some combustible metaphors in Eicha, the biblical book of Lamentations that is the central text of the Tisha B’Av fast, which begins this year after sundown on Wednesday.