“Megilloth” (Heb. mĕgillôt, “rolls, scrolls”) is a technical term referring to the five scrolls that were brought together from the 6th century a.d., each being read in the synagogue during a festival (or fast). From the 12th century the sequence was Song of Songs, for Passover; Ruth, for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost); Lamentations, for the fast on the ninth of Av, commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and later by the Romans; Ecclesiastes, for the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles); and Esther, for Purim (Jewish Practices 2).

The unusual content of three scr…