Eli Tsiyyon Ve-Areha

("Let Zion and its cities lament"). Opening words of an elegy which, in the Ashkenazi rite, is chanted at the end of the Morning Service on the fast of Tishah Be-Av. Though an anonymous composition of the Middle Ages, it is sometimes attributed to Judah Halevi, either for stylistic reasons or because it concludes the final section of the elegies (Kinot) for the Ninth of Av with his celebrated "Ode to Zion." Structurally, Eli Tsiyyon is a monorhyme, the second word of each line beginning with a different Hebrew letter in alphabetical order (except for the 15th). The opening couplet serves as a refrain after each two-line stanza. Deliberately echoing a biblical verse (Joel 1:8), the couplet reads: "Let Zion and its cities lament like a woman crying out in her labor pains;/And like a maiden wrapped in sackcloth mourning for the husband of her youth." The elegy reflects the misery and horror that accompanied the destruction of the Second Temple. Before chanting Eli Tsiyyon, congregants rise to their feet. Whether responsively or in unison, the reader and congregation then sing the dirge to a traditional tune which Ashkenazim also employ for other elegies and for Lekhah Dodi during the Three Weeks of Mourning from 17 Tammuz.

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