Ketuvim

No biblical book takes up theodicy's challenge with greater power than the moving and enigmatic story of Job.

The Purim story is a reminder of our essential power for human agency.

The book of Job challenges the simple equation of suffering with punishment, by telling the story of one righteous man's confrontation with overwhelming misfortune.

What if there is no valley of the shadow of death?

The final book of the Bible recounts the nation's history, but what it emphasizes and de-emphasizes is telling.

Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, asks important questions that address the theological crisis following the Jewish exile.

Those who returned from Babylonia sought to reclaim Judah's former glory, despite major challenges.

Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes.

Despite the cynical tone of Ecclesiastes, it has been given a place of joy and honor in the Jewish cycle of readings.

The book of Esther is not a historical document in the usual sense--but that doesn't undermine its importance as a religious book in the Jewish canon.