During the week before Tisha B’Av, 5781, I came across the section of Kinot in מחזור מנהג אשכנז המערבי לכל השנה Parma 2885 (14th Century) and was surprised by how many lines within the Kinot were censored. The Kinah with the most lines crossed out was איכה אצת באפך, a sample of which I am attaching. I posted this image in my Nusach Hatefillah Facebook group and one of the members pointed out that the censor did not perform his job well because you can see through the censor’s attempted erasure. What this member failed to recognize is that the page he was looking at was written about seven hundred years ago. The scribe’s writing survived intact while the censor’s mark faded. That is a metaphor for the secret message of Tisha B’Av. Yes, we recall many of the tragedies that have overwhelmed the Jewish People since the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash but like the censor’s mark, those who inflicted those tragedies have faded away but the Jewish People, like the scribe’s print, have survived. The Jewish People will always outlive those who attempt to erase the Jewish People. I look forward to reading the lines of the Kinah that the censor attempted to erase from Jewish memory. You can view all the Kinot in the Machzor here: מחזור מנהג אשכנז המערבי לכל השנה Parma 2885
