The Midrash on Lamentations () is a midrashic commentary to the Book of Lamentations.
It is one of the oldest works of midrash, along with Genesis Rabbah and the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana.
Names
The midrash is quoted, perhaps for the first time, by Chananel ben Chushiel under the name "Aggadat Eichah." Many passages are quoted by R. Nathan, who invariably calls the work Megillat Eichah. The term Eichah Rabbati, which is general even now, is used to designate the many extracts in Yalkut Shimoni which have been included with the other Biblical books. In Lamentations Rabbah itself, the sources are almost always missing. The names Midrash Eichah, Midrash Kinot, Megillat Kinot, are also found in the old authors. In Yalkut Shimoni, there are likewise long extracts from a Midrash on Lamentations published under the name Midrash Zutta.
Contents
The work begins with 36 consecutive proems forming a separate collection, certainly made by the author of the Midrash. They constitute more than one quarter of the work These proems and, perhaps, most of the annotations, which are arranged in the sequence of the verses, originated in the discourses of which, in olden times, the Book of Lamentations had been the subject. The aggadic explanation of this book—which is a dirge on the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the national destruction that came along with it—was treated by scholars as especially appropriate to Tisha B'Av, to the day of the destruction of the Temple, and to the evening before Tisha B'Av.
The Proems
The sources from which Jerusalem Talmud drew must have been accessible to the author of Lamentations Rabbah, which was certainly edited some time after the completion of the former, and which probably borrowed from it. In the same way older collections must have served as the common source for Lamentations Rabbah, Genesis Rabbah, and especially for the Pesiqta de-Rab Kahana. The aggadic comment on Hosea 6:7 appears earlier as a proem to a discourse on Lamentations, and is included among the proems in this Midrash as a comment on Genesis 3:9. The close of this proem, which serves as a connecting link with Lamentations 1:1, is found also in the Pesiqta as the first proem to pericope 15 (p. 119a) to Isaiah 1:21, the Hafṭarah for the Sabbath before Tisha B'Av.
The same is the case with the second and fourth proems in the Pesiqta, which are identical with the fourth and third (according to the correct enumeration) of the proems to Lamentations Rabbah; the fifth in the Pesiqta (120b-121b), which corresponds to the second in this Midrash, has a defective ending. With a change in the final sentences, the first proem in Lamentations Rabbah is used as a proem in the Pesiqta pericope 11 (110a), and with a change of the proem text and of its close, proem 10 (9) of Lamentations Rabbah is found as a proem in the Pesiqta pericope 19 (137b).
On the other hand, there is found embodied in the exposition of Lamentations 1:2, "she weepeth sore in the night," etc., a whole proem, the text of which is Psalms 78:7 et seq., "I remember my lute-playing in the night," etc.; this proem contains also the final sentence which serves as introduction to the section Isaiah 49:14, and it is known from the Pesiqta pericope 17 to be a proem to a discourse on this section, which is intended for the second "consolatory Sabbath" after Tisha B'Av. From this, it becomes evident that the collector of the Lamentations Rabbah used the aggadic exposition—found in the Pesiqta fulfilling its original purpose—as a comment on Lamentations 1:2. The same is true of the commentary to Lamentations 1:21 for which there was used a proem on the Pesiqta section Isaiah 51:12, intended originally for the fourth Sabbath after Tisha B'Av, and a section which had for its text this verse of Lamentations (pericope 19, p. 138a); and also in regard to the comment to Lamentations 3:39, which consists of a proem of the Pesiqta pericope 18 (p. 130b).