Book of Lamentations
-
Does the Book of Lamentations (of Jeremiah) have any worthwhile Qabbalistic value? I can see something in it, but it's very subtle and not in every verse. I'm not thinking so much about gematria as about the 22 letters pattern as it relates to the contents of the text. Thoughts?
-
According to Wikipedia:
"Lamentations consists of five distinct poems, corresponding to its five chapters. The first four are written as acrostics – chapters 1, 2, and 4 each have 22 verses, corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the first lines beginning with the first letter of the alphabet, the second with the second letter, and so on. Chapter 3 has 66 verses, so that each letter begins three lines, and the fifth poem is not acrostic but still has 22 lines.[5] The purpose or function of this form is unknown.[6]
"Personally, I think the "purpose or function of this form" has nothing special and it's just a form of art to use acrostics in religious poems.
-
The practical purpose of an acrostic is that it's a memory aid. Poems were memorized and recited, and if you know the next letter, you've got a hint about the next line.
However, if you were to write a poem with lines starting with the alphabet, in order, how could one say that the alphabet has no influence over the poem? And if the Hebrew Alphabet is of such a profound mystical quality that it forms the basis for the tarot trumps and the paths of the tree of life, how could one say that the resulting poetry would have no mystical value?