Midrash Eikha, Petihata (Introduction to the Midrash of Lamentations) [Cochin, India, early 20th century]

54 pages (8 x 6 1/8 in.; 202 x 152 mm). Written in brown ink on lined paper in Hebrew square script with vowel points (nikud); line-by-line translation in Malayalam, 13-20 lines to the page; later pagination in pencil. Slight smudging affecting some words; lightly browned. Red cloth.

David Solomon Sassoon—his ms # 447

Ohel David, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, 1932. Vol. I, p. 48; 447.

The Midrash on Lamentations or Eikhah Rabbah belongs to the oldest works of the Midrashic literature. It begins with a section of 36 consecutive petihata (Aramaic for "openings"). These preludes form a discrete unit which constitute more than one-fourth of Eikhah Rabbah. The text of the present manuscript agrees with the Buber edition, comprising the twenty-fourth prelude, written in Hebrew with a line-by-line translation into Malayalam.

The present manuscript was formerly in the collection of David Solomon Sassoon. See Ohel David, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, 1932. Vol. I, p. 48; no. 447.