kinnah means Any of the dirges or elegies traditionally recited by Jews on Tisha B'Av to mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem and other tragedies in Jewish history, including the Crusades and the Holocaust. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 81 out of 100.
Why this word is great
KINNAH — [Noun] A Hebrew liturgical poem of lamentation, traditionally recited on Tisha B'Av to mourn the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and the cascade of national calamities in Jewish history. Borrowed from Hebrew קִינָה (kiná, "lament, dirge, elegy"). Unlike a personal, reflective elegy, which mourns a singular life, or the hallowing, God-affirming kaddish, the kinnah is a collective, historical keening that binds communal trauma to ritual observance. It is the cantor's voice cracking over the Book of Lamentations in a darkened synagogue, the shadow of a broken wall cast by a guttering candle, and the taste of ashes mingled with the recitation of ancient verse—a formal architecture of sorrow forged to house an exile that has not ended.
noun
- Any of the dirges or elegies traditionally recited by Jews on Tisha B'Av to mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem and other tragedies in Jewish history, including the Crusades and the Holocaust.“Add a Kinah or Kinot in the Yizkor service in memory of those who were murdered.”