The Kinot as Talmud
I have been watching the YU Tisha B’av channel with Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter on and off during the day. Dr. Schacter is continuing the tradition of Rav Soloveitchik who turned the kinot into a text whose recital was interspersed with historical, theological, and literary commentary. See here for a discussion about his approach to the recital of kinot. Not suprisingly, the Kinot Koren Mesorat HaRav was published this year. This is an interesting comment from the translator of this volume, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb.
As I concluded my onerous assignment, our editorial committee faced a difficult decision: Would we include recent kinot occasioned by the Holocaust? The Rav, we knew, frowned upon the recitation of any but the traditional kinot. But our people seem to have spoken in favor of the inclusion of some Holocaust lamentations; the inclusion of modern-day kinot has become prevalent if not universal in the years since the Rav’s passing. We decided to respectfully diverge from the Rav’s opinion and to include several contemporary kinot related to the Holocaust. But I felt compelled to decline to translate them, and so someone else translated them.
Rav Soloveitchik’s approach to the teaching of kinot is certainly interesting, and while thinking about it a bit, I realized that Rav Soloveitchik sort of turned the kinot into Talmud. The text was to be recited, but more than its recitation, its study was now the central devotional act.
One interesting comment from earlier in the day was Dr. Schacter’s recollection of a sabbatical that Rav Amital z”l took during the 1980′s. First of all, Dr. Schacter said that he had difficulty thinking of another Rosh Yeshiva who took a sabbatical. Rav Amital spent half of the year in New York, and the other half in Boston. While in New York, Rav Amital used to attend daily and Shabbat services at the Jewish Center where Dr. Schacter was the rabbi. He said that Rav Amital used to come to the synagogue and sit down in the back like any other person who came there, no fanfare at all. Dr. Schacter said that during his time in New York, Rav Amital spent much of it visiting museums. When he said this I recalled having read about Rav Amital’s love of art in an article many years ago. Dr. Schacter said that, while he didn’t really know Rav Amital so well, it was clear that for Rav Amital there was a world outside of the yeshiva that existed and was to appreciated and cherished.