How "The Megillot" works

The five 'Holiday Books' of the Hebrew Bible

The Bible has parts, and they relate to each other as parts. You may know that the name tanak is a logized acronym for the Torah (Law), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings).

Marvin Sweeney posits that, while the Torah lays out the ideals of Jewish life, and the Nevi’im disrupt them, the Ketuvim provides a model for the restoration of those ideas in the land of Israel and the wider world.

He breaks down the purpose of each of the books of the Ketuvim. For my purposes (and in so far as you’re following my train of thought, our purposes), focus in on the five books called the Megillot. (More on these five short books in weeks and months to come.)

Psalms presents the hymn book (perhaps) of the Second Temple, and thereby provides a liturgical basis for Jewish worship of G-d in the yet-to-be-restored Third Temple of the future...

Proverbs is a wisdom book that instructs its readers on how to live in the world. Insofar as it posits a stable world of creation and ideal means of human conduct based on G-d’s consultation with wisdom as the first of the creation (see Prov 8), it provides an alternative means to learn divine Torah by observing the world of creation and learning to live according to its norms.

Job questions the stable world of creation and moral order by arguing that human beings really do not understand the divine principles by which our world works, insofar as divine wisdom is so difficult to understand (for example, Job 28).

The Megillot are each tied to a holiday and thereby provide a means to reflect on the lessons and observance of the festival.

• Song of Songs reflects on the intimate nature of the relationship between YHWH and Israel established at the time of the Exodus from Egypt celebrated at Passover.

• Ruth reflects on the revelation of Torah in the world celebrated at Shavuot (Pentecost) by focusing on the life of Ruth, a Moabitess who converts to Judaism.

• Lamentations mourns the destruction of the Temple at Tisha b’Av and thereby gives voice to the suffering of the Jewish people throughout their history.

• Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) probes the futility and transitory nature of human life in the world at the time of Sukkot (Tabernacles), which celebrates Israel’s transitory life in the wilderness.

• Esther celebrates the deliverance of Jews from the Persian decree of death at the time of Purim while reflecting on the questions of divine absence and human responsibility in the world.

Daniel posits a future restoration of the world in which Jews will ultimately overcome the threats posed against them in the world with the aid of G-d. It is perhaps no accident that Daniel appears before Ezra–Nehemiah, which portrays the restoration of the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem during the early Persian period. Such a portrayal obviously anticipates another restoration of the Temple and Jewish life in the land of Israel.

And finally, Chronicles presents a history of Israel, focused on the Jerusalem Temple planned by David and built by Solomon, from the time of Adam to the time of King Cyrus of Persia. Chronicles provides an alternative interpretation of history to that of the Former Prophets by positing that those who suffer do so on account of their own actions rather than because of the actions of ancestors as posited in the Former Prophets. But it also points forward to the restoration of the Temple, this time under the authority of the Persians rather than under the authority of the house of David. In this respect, Chronicles points to new possibilities for the realization of ideal Jewish life in the land of Israel and the world at large.

Texts for Holidays

Sweeney identifies the Ketuvim as occasional texts, and the Megillot as holiday texts:

These books are not read regularly in the synagogue service, as are the Torah or the Haftarah readings of the Prophets. Some of them appear on various occasions, viz., many of the Psalms are read individually within the services or as part of the Hallel, and the Five Megillot are read in relation to major festival observances, that is, Song of Songs on Passover, Ruth on Shavuot, Lamentations on Tisha b’Av, Qoheleth on Sukkot, and Esther on Purim.

The Church’s use of the Psalms is not far from this, which is encouraging.

But I can’t help but think about this disparity in our commemoration of our own holidays. On and around Christmas, for example, we read the nativity narratives and incarnation reflections (e.g. Matt. 1-2; Luke 1-2; John 1:1-18). But those are passages, not books.

On Passover, Jews can read both the deliverance narrative (Exod. 12) and an entire book which reconfigures the holiday in a brilliant burst of innerbiblical exegesis within a historically (e.g. “judges,” Ruth 1:1; “David,” 4:22) and liturgically significant (“barley harvest,” 1:22) setting.

My own reading is motivated both by jealousy (Why isn’t the NT longer?) and by interest (How ought the Church receive the Megillot?)

My practical thesis is simple: During Evening Prayer on Holy Saturday, let’s read the Song of Songs out loud. On Pentecost, let’s read Ruth.

In the meantime, as I (we?) keep reading Ruth, and attend to the ways in which it picks up and interacts with texts from the Torah and Nevi’im, keep curious about the ways in which it interprets and re-offers those texts to us.