David C. Jacobson

In recent decades, there has been a resurgence of interest among both secular and religious Israelis in Talmudic stories. This growing fascination with Talmudic stories has been inspired by contemporary Israeli writers who have sought to make readers aware of the special qualities of these well-crafted narratives that portray universal human situations, including marriages, relationships between parents and children, power struggles between people, and the challenge of trying to live a good life. The Charm of Wise Hesitancy explores the resurgence of interest in Talmudic stories in Israel and presents some of the most popular Talmudic stories in contemporary Israeli culture, as well as creative interpretations of those stories by Israeli writers, thereby providing readers with an opportunity to consider how these stories may be relevant to their own lives.

In recent decades, there has been a resurgence of interest among both secular and religious Israelis in Talmudic stories. This growing fascination with Talmudic stories has been inspired by contemporary Israeli writers who have sought to make readers aware of the special qualities of these well-crafted narratives that portray universal human situations, including marriages, relationships between parents and children, power struggles between people, and the challenge of trying to live a good life. The Charm of Wise Hesitancy explores the resurgence of interest in Talmudic stories in Israel and presents some of the most popular Talmudic stories in contemporary Israeli culture, as well as creative interpretations of those stories by Israeli writers, thereby providing readers with an opportunity to consider how these stories may be relevant to their own lives.

In recent decades, a group of second generation religious Zionist West Bank settlers have turned away from the collectivist political messianic ideology of the first generation of settlers and have begun to explore poetry as a mode of individual self expression. Based on interviews of eight key figures in this new trend and an analysis of fifty works by these poets, "Beyond Political Messianism: The Poetry of the Second Generation of Religious Zionist Settlers" tells the story of how they revolutionised the religious Zionist settler culture by moving poetry writing into the mainstream of that culture, and how they introduced into the world of secular Israeli literature images and language styles drawn from their lives as religiously observant Jews. Among the themes central to these poets' concerns are: the formation of a religious identity based on faith and ritual observance, the relationship of the contemporary Jew to the Bible and to traditional Jewish texts, appropriate ways to write about erotic experience, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In an anthology that is both scholarly and accessible to readers of contemporary poetry, David C. Jacobson examines the search for God in the work of six prominent Israeli poets—Yehuda Amichai, Admiel Kosman, Rivka Miriam, Zelda Mishkovsky, Hava Pinhas-Cohen, and Asher Reich. In the book's introduction, Jacobson explores the central role that poetry has always played and continues to play in our understanding of the religious experience. The work of each poet is then preceded by an introduction which establishes the historical and biographical contexts of the poems discussed. The poetry appears in the original Hebrew as well as Jacobson's graceful English translations.

Exploring the ways that contemporary Israeli poets have made use of images from the Bible in their poetry, this work features close readings of 50 poems from poets such as Amir Gilboa, T. Carmi and Nathan Yonathan. They are presented in their original Hebrew and in English translation.

Explores a central phenomenon in the development of modern Jewish literature: the retelling of tradtional Jewish narratives by twentieth-century writers. It shows how and toward what ends Biblical stories, legends, and Hasidic tales have been used in shaping modern Hebrew literature. This book explores a central phenomenon in the development of modern Jewish literature: the retelling of tradtional Jewish narratives by twentieth-century writers. It shows how and toward what ends Biblical stories, legends, and Hasidic tales have been used in shaping modern Hebrew literature. The author's impressive knowledge and careful analysis of both early and modern Hebrew texts reveal the main literary features of the genre, while making an important contribution to current discussions of the relationship between midrash and literature, the relationship between myth (and other traditional narratives) and modern literature, and the concept of intertextuality. The book also provides many fresh insights on the various issues of modern Jewish existence addressed in these works. Among these are: the revival of the Jewish tradition by reinterpreting it in light of new values, the preservation of Jewish identity entering into Western culture, the changing roles of men and women in Jewish culture, challenges to traditional Jewish views of sexuality, attempts to physically destroy the Jewish people, moral and political issues raised by the establishment of the State of Israel, and the conflict between Jews and Arabs.