מְגִילַּת הַשּׁוֹאָה

[lethargic_man]

Some years ago I came across the Conservative Movement's מְגִילַּת הַשּׁוֹאָה, a megillah (scroll) they have written to commemorate the Holocaust. It struck me as a strange thing to do at the time: The word מְגִילָה normally refers to one of five books of the Bible; what's the need to go writing a new one? Why does the Holocaust need to be remembered with a מְגִילָה to be read ritually; are the wealth of books and films not enough?

Since then, though, I came across this article, which informs me that there were, indeed, historical precedents; and my nagging feeling that this was a wrong, or at best unneeded, thing to do has gone away. (My opposition to inventing a masorah for it out of whole cloth, though, stands.)