What is the Ketav Meriri?
Answer
Let's back up a minute and start with a simple understanding.
In Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32:24), God warns of:
מְזֵי רָעָב וּלְחֻמֵי רֶשֶׁף,
וְקֶטֶב מְרִירִי
What's this "ketev mriri"?
To quote R' Aryeh Kaplan's Living Torah:
[They will be] bloated by famine, consumed by fever, cut down by bitter plague ...
cut down (Rashi; Baaley Tosafoth;Ralbag).Ketev in Hebrew; see Isaiah 28:2, Hosea 13:14, Psalms 91:6. Or, 'plague,' al-chalaf in Arabic (Saadia; Ibn Janach; Ibn Ezra; Bachya; Radak, Sherashim); 'destruction' (Septuagint); 'crushed' (Targum).
bitter plague (Saadia), or 'bad air,' possibly 'malaria' (Ibn Ezra; Ralbag). Meriri in Hebrew. Or, 'unquenchable destruction' (Septuagint); 'robbers' (Rashbam); 'evil spirits,' or, 'bad vapors' (Targum); 'demons' (Sifri; Rashi); or, 'madness' (Tzafenath Paaneach; cf. Sifri on Deuteronomy 21:18).
It's generally known that the Three Weeks are considered an inauspicious time; ask your local rabbi exactly what risky activities you should therefore curtail during this period.
Beyond that, if a good Jewish person assumes that halacha is what made it into the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch, and none of the demon stuff appears there, so what to make of the aggadic spooky stuff in the Gemara? I'm sure there's a deeper meaning, but for now, Teiku.
Or best of all, keep the Torah and mitzvos, so we don't get any of the punishments warned about.
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