Unit 5: lesson 1

HEBREW LITERATURE
 HEBREW
LITERATURE
Hebrew literature
consists of ancient,
medieval and modern
writings in the hebrew
language. It is one of the
primary forms of Jewish
literature, though there
have been cases of
literature written in
hebrew by non-Jews.
ANCIENT
HEBREW
LITERATURE
• Leshon Hakodesh is the
oral literature or the holy
language
• Hebrew literature begins
with the Tanach, the torah
or, as more commonly
known, the Old Testament.
It should be noted that the
Old Testament is a later
Christian translation and
interpretation of the Hebrew
Bible.
• Mishna is a primary
rabbinic codification of laws
as derived from the torah. It
was written in Mishnaic
Hebrew.
HISTORY OF
ANCIENT HEBREW
LITERATURE
• To understand the Old
Testament, it is necessary to have
some familiarity with the history of
the people who wrote it. Judaism is
a historical religion, which means
that the ideas associated with it
were disclosed to the Hebrew
people through the concrete events
that occurred in that part of the
world where they lived during the
centuries in which the Old
Testament was in the making.
• While it is true that the books of the
Old Testament begin with an account of
the creation of the world, we must
bear in mind that the narratives dealing
with such topics as the Creation, the
Garden of Eden, the Fall, the Great
Flood, and other events related in the
Book of Genesis were never intended
to be regarded as an accurate historical
account of the entire world process.
THE CREATION
Written by Moses in Genesis 1:1-2:7
In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth,
and while the earth was still unformed, God said, "Let
there be light," and there was light. And God saw that
the light was good. Then God separated the light from
the darkness. And God called the light Day and the
darkness Night. And there was an evening and a
morning, making the first day.
And God said, "Let there be a sky and let it divide the
waters that are below from the waters that are above
the sky." And it was done. And God called the sky the
Heavens. And there was an evening and a morning,
making the second day.
 And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be
brought together, and let the dry land appear." And it
was done. And God called the dry land Earth and the
waters that were brought together Seas. And God saw
that it was good.
 And God said, "Let plants and trees grow from the
earth." And it was done. And plants and trees grew
from the earth, each plant bringing forth its own kind
of seed and each tree its own kind of fruit, and God
saw that it was good. And there was an evening and a
morning, making the third day.
 And God said, "Let there be lights in the heavens to separate the
night from the day. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, the
days, and the years. Let them be lights in the heavens to light the
earth." And it was done. So God made the two great lights (the sun
and the moon): the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule
the night. God made the stars also and placed them in the heavens
to throw light upon the earth. And God saw that it was good. And
there was an evening and a morning, making the fourth day.
 And God said, "Let the waters bring forth many living
creatures and let birds fly above the earth and in the sky."
And God made large sea-monsters and all kinds of living
creatures with which the waters abound, and all kinds of
birds. And God saw that it was good. And he blessed them,
saying, "Increase and fill the waters in the seas, and let the
birds increase on the earth." And there was an evening and
a morning, making the fifth day.
 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of
living creatures, cattle and creeping things and wild
beasts." And it was done. So God made all the different
kinds of wild beasts, and the cattle, and everything
that crawls upon the ground. And God saw that it was
good.
 And God said, "Let us make man like ourselves. Let him rule over the
fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the wild beasts and all
the living things that crawl upon the ground." And God made man like
himself, like God he made him. He made them male and female.
And God blessed them, and said to them, "Have children, increase, live
all over the earth, and conquer it; rule over the fish of the sea, the birds
of the sky, and over every living thing that crawls upon the ground."
 And God said, "See, to you I give every plant which grows on all
the earth, and every tree which bears fruit with its own kind of
seed. It shall be food for you. And to every wild beast and to every
bird of the sky and to every thing that crawls on the earth and is
alive, I give every green herb for food." And it was done.
And when God saw everything that he had made, he saw that it
was very good. And there was an evening and a morning, making
the sixth day.
 And the heavens and the earth were finished and
all that there was in them. And on the seventh
day when God had finished the work which he had
done, he rested from all his work. And God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, for in it

he rested from all the work which he had done .

MEDIEVAL
HEBREW
LITERATURE
During the medieval period, the
majority of Jewish and Hebrew
literature was composed in Islamic
North Africa, Spain, Palestine, and the
Middle East. Many works of
medieval philosophical literature such
as Maimonedes' Guide to the Perplexed
and The Kuzari, as well as many works
of fiction, were written in Judeo-
Arabic. Works of rabbinic literature
were more often written in Hebrew,
including: Torah commentaries
by Abraham ibn Ezra, Rashi and
others; codifications of Jewish law,
such as Maimonides' Mishneh Torah,
the Arba'ah Turim, and the Shulchan
Aruch; and works of Musar literature
(didactic ethical literature) such
as Bahya ibn Paquda‘s Chovot ha-
Levavot (The Duties of the Heart). One
work of fiction which was written in
Hebrew was the "Fox Fables"
by Berechiah ben Natronai ha-
Nakdan, Hebrew fables which
resemble Aesop's fables.
 THE WOLF AND THE LAMB
A WOLF and lamb once chanced to meet
Beside a stream, whose waters sweet
Brought various kinds of beasts together,
When dry and sultry was the weather;
Now though the wolf came there to drink,
Of eating he began to think,
As soon as near the lamb he came,
And straight resolved to kill the same;
Yet thought it better to begin
With threat’ning words and angry mien.
“And so,” said he to him below,
“How dare you stir the water so?
Making the cool refreshing flood
As brown as beer, and thick as mud.”
“Sir,” said the lamb, “that cannot be,
The water flows from you to me;
So, ’tis impossible, I think,
That what I do can spoil your drink.”
 “I say it does, you saucy puss:
How dare you contradict me thus?
But more than this, you idle clack,
You rail’d at me behind my back
Two years ago, I have been told;”
“How so? I’m not a twelvemonth old,”
The lamb replied; “so I suspect
Your honour is not quite correct.”
“If not, your mother it must be,
And that is all the same to me,”
Rejoin’d the wolf—who waited not,
But kill’d and ate him on the spot.
Some, like the wolf, adopt the plan
To make a quarrel if they can;
But none with you can hold dispute
If you’re determined to be mute;
For sure this proverb must be true,
That ev’ry quarrel must have two.
MEDIEVAL
HEBREW
LITERATURE
With the growth of Christianity in
the MiddleAges, it was natural for
the church to absorb the animal
fable into its doctrine. In early
Christian thought, animals, like
the whole of the natural world,
existed wholly for the edification of
humankind. They had shared in
"the Fall," but played no part in
the plan for Redemption. Beryl
Rowland, in her study of animals
in Chaucer, Blind Beasts, states
that their purpose was to provide
moral lessons that would assist in
man's moral regeneration. The
Bible, too, reinforced symbolic
concepts such as "the wolf in
sheep's clothing," "the dog
returning to its vomit," "the stupid
sheep," "the innocent lamb," and
"the crafty fox." It was common for
early church writers to ascribe
human vices to particular animals.
MODERN
HEBREW
LITERATURE
In addition to writing
traditional rabbinic
literature in Hebrew,
modern Jews developed
new forms of fiction,
poetry, and essay-
writing, which are
typically called "Modern
Hebrew Literature."
18TH
CENTURY
• “La-Yeshamir Tehillah”
it is an allegorical drama, it is
the first product of modern
hebrew literature, it is written
by Moses Hayyim Luzatto.
• Moses Mendelsshon’s
translation of the hebrew bible
into German inspired interest in
the hebrew language that led to
the founding of a quarterly
review written in hebrew.
• “Shire Tif’ eret” and “Mosaide”
poem made by Nephtali Hirz
and Wessely.
19th
CENTURY
•Galicia poet, scholar and
popular writer who contributed
to the discrimination of hebrew
and to the emancipation of the
Jews of Galicia.
• Joseph Perl is a writer and
educator, in 1819, he pubished
“Revealer of secrets” it is the
first hebrew novel.
•Nachman Krochmal is a
philosopher, theologian and
historian.
• Solomon Juda Loeb Rapoport
is a rabbi, poet, and biographer.
• Isaac Erter a satirical poet
whose collection of essay “Ha-
tzofet le-bet Yisrael” is oe of the
purest works of modern hebrew
literature.
20th
CENTURY
• Hayim Nahman Bialik is one of
the pioneers of modern hebrew
poets
•Yitzhaq Shami is a novelist,
Palestinian jewish native of
Hebron
•2004- he was recognized by
Palestinian Academic Society as
one of the important Palestinian
writers.
• Leah Golderg is a prolific writer
and pioneer of Israel Children’s
literature
CONTEMPORARY
HEBREW
LITERATURE
• My Michael and Black Box
are novels written by Amos
Oz.
• The lover and Mr. Mani
are novels written by A.B
Yehoshua.
• Anton Shammas Israel
who published the Hebrew
novels “Arabesque”