HEBREW LITERATURE

Literature written by Jews in Hebrew and, by extension, certain theological and scholarly works translated from the Hebrew by Jewish scholars. Hebrew was the principal literary language of the Jews until the 19th century, when European languages came into use for works of modern Jewish scholarship and Yiddish became a vehicle of literary expression. For the writings of Jewish authors in Yiddish, see YIDDISH LITERATURE,. Since the establishment of Hebrew as the official language of Israel, in 1948, a large body of fiction and nonfiction has been written in the language.

The Scriptures.

Hebrew literature may be divided chronologically into 12 periods. Ancient Hebrew literature consists mainly of the Old Testament (see BIBLE,), and the first three periods of the literature were devoted to the writing of various portions of the Old Testament. In the first period, which extended from earliest times to about 950 bc, were written many of the lyrics found in the Old Testament. To the second period (c. 950–586 bc) belong most of the historical narratives concerning the kings of Israel and Judah, some of the PSALMS (q.v.), and the oracles of certain prophets. During the third period (586–165 bc) the books of the Bible known as the Writings, specifically, ECCLESIASTES,, JOB,, PROVERBS, (qq.v.), and a large part of the Psalms were composed. Many apocryphal writings also originated during this time, and a major portion of the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek by Jewish scholars living in Egypt.

In the fourth period (165 bc–ad 135), the MIDRASH (q.v.), which had been begun during the Babylonian captivity, was divided into two parts, the HALAKAH and the HAGGADA (qq.v.). Among other works of this period were a number of the APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS, (q.v.) of the Old Testament, including those pseudonymously ascribed to Moses, the prophet Daniel, the patriarch Enoch, and the priest and reformer Ezra; the DEAD SEA SCROLLS, (q.v.), attributed to Jewish monastic communities of the Essene type; and the writings of the philosopher Philo Judaeus and of the historian Flavius Josephus. (See also TARGUM,.)

The Talmud.

The major accomplishment during the fifth period (135–475) was the TALMUD, (q.v.). The version known as the Palestinian Talmud was completed, and the more important version known as the Babylonian Talmud took shape. In the sixth period (470–740) the Babylonian Talmud was completed, some early versions of the Haggadoth (plural of Haggada) were collected, and marginal notes, called MASORA (q.v.), were added to the Scriptures.

In the seventh period (740–1040), the earliest Hebrew prayer books were compiled (c. 880), and the first dictionary of the Talmud was written (c. 900). The era was also notable for Sefer ha-Mitzwot (The Book of Precepts), calling for a return to Scripture, written about 770 by Anan ben David, the founder of the Jewish sect of the Karaites. Another important writer of the ninth period was Saadia ben Joseph, who compiled a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary and wrote poems in Hebrew. Rhymed Hebrew poetry was first written in the 8th century, and the forms and rules of modern Hebrew poetry originated in the 10th century. The great centers of Jewish scholarship in the early part of this period were northern Africa and Italy; in the latter part, Spain and Egypt.

European Writers.

The eighth period (1040–1204) was dominated by scholars and writers in Europe. Spanish Jews, using either Arabic (mainly) or Hebrew, wrote poetry, philosophy, and history. Among the most famous Jewish writers of Spain were the poet Judah ha-Levi and Maimonides, who contributed to law, logic, medicine, and mathematics, as well as to philosophy. His treatise Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190; trans. 1919) is one of the greatest products of Jewish religious philosophy. Many renowned Talmudic scholars lived in France, others in Germany.

The ninth period (1204–1492) also included outstanding scholars in Spain, Portugal, Provence, Italy, and Germany. Philosophical and ethical treatises began to be supplanted by mystical writings, foremost among which was the great 13th-century cabalistic work, the Zohar (in full, Sefer ha-zohar, or The Book of Splendor; see CABALA,). This has been ascribed to the Spanish scholar Moses de León (1250–1305). The first Hebrew books ever printed were published in Italy; Joshua Soncino (fl. late 15th cent.), a member of a wide-ranging family of Italian-born Jewish printers, issued the first complete Hebrew Bible (1488). Some 20 years later, the Dutch Christian printer Daniel Bomberg (d. 1549) established a Hebrew press in Venice and published the first complete editions of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.

During the tenth period (1492–1755) numerous works in Hebrew, and in many European languages as well, were written by Jewish theologians, philosophers (for example, Baruch Spinoza), historians, mathematicians, poets, biblical commentators, and lexicographers.

The 11th period (1755–1880) is noted for the work of Moses Mendelssohn, whose efforts to acquaint the Jews of central Europe with Western culture initiated the movement known as the Haskalah (Enlightenment). Decrying the use of Yiddish, Mendelssohn and his followers encouraged the revival of Hebrew as well as use of the languages of the countries in which Jews lived. One of the first modern literary journals in Hebrew, Meassef (Collector), was published by Mendelssohn’s circle. Among other Hebrew scholars of this period was the Ukrainian-born philosopher Nachman Krochmal (1785–1840), whose major work was More Nevukhe ha-Zman (The Guide for the Perplexed of Our Time, 1851).

Modern Writers.

The 12th period (1880 to the present) is marked, initially, by the continuance of the Haskalah and a renaissance Hebrew literature on secular themes, and, latterly, by the Hebrew literature of Israel. The rise of Zionism at the end of the 19th century encouraged renewed interest in written and spoken Hebrew, especially among the Jews of Eastern Europe. The first Hebrew newspaper, ha-Yom (The Day), appeared in 1886; among several Hebrew periodicals was ha-Shahar (The Dawn), a literary journal founded in Vienna in 1868 and edited by the Russian-born writer Peretz Smolenskin (1840?–85). It was in this periodical that Smolenskin’s great semiautobiographical novel ha-To’eh Be-Darkhei ha-Hayyim (The Wanderer in the Paths of Life, 3 vol., 1868–70) first appeared serially. The leading poet of the Haskalah was Judah Leib Gordon (1830–92), born in what is now Lithuania. His work, composed in biblical and more modern Hebrew, established a new poetic style. A number of fiction writers, influenced by the Enlightenment movement, turned from Yiddish to Hebrew; one of these was Mendele Mokher Sefarim (pseudonym of Shalom Jacob Abramovich). The novels of “Grandfather Mendele,” concerning contemporary ghetto life, remained widely popular into the 20th century.

Among the most important contributions to the Hebrew renaissance was the work of three Russian-born writers of the same generation, Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Saul Tchernikhovsky (1875–1943), and Zalman Shneur (1886–1959). Bialik, poet, essayist, and interpreter of the Judaic heritage, was also a translator of European classics such as Don Quixote. Although much of Tchernikhovsky’s poetry celebrates the gods of the ancient world in almost pagan terms, other works are devoted to idyllic portrayals of Jewish folk life. Shneur’s poetry and prose called his people to help in the rebirth of spiritual values.

The settlement of Jews in Palestine gave a new impetus and direction to Hebrew literature, although the first émigré prose writers were still emotionally tied to the past. Joseph Hayyim Brenner (1881–1921), a novelist, short-story writer, and literary critic who settled in Palestine in 1908, stressed the tragic element in life and longed for a faith that would offer relief from despair. The early work of S. Y. Agnon gives a picture of Jewish life in the shtetls, or villages, of Eastern Europe; but from the 1940s on, he wrote of life in the pioneering communities of Palestine. Hayyim Hazaz (1898–1973) went to Palestine in 1931; his work includes stories of the biblical period as well as a novel about Yemenite Jews in the land of Israel, Ha-Yoshevet ba-Gannim (Thou That Dwellest in the Gardens, 1944). Unlike their prose fiction, the poetry of this first generation of settlers dealt more directly with the new life. The verse of Rahel Bluwstein (1890–1931), who was born in the Ukraine, proclaims her love of Palestine; most of her work has been set to music. The poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg (1894–1981) is concerned with topical themes. Nathan Alterman (1910–70), born in Warsaw, arrived in Palestine in 1925. Originally a disciple of French symbolism, he turned from overloaded imagery and dissonant rhymes to simpler language and style in such works as Ir Hayona (The City of the Dove, 1957), and to political themes.

The work of the first native-born Israeli writers continued to show a duality of concerns. Inspired by the Jewish past, they also wrote of the promise and problems of the new land and of the question of Jewish identity. Among these writers are Moshe Shamir (1921– ), novelist and playwright, whose novels include The King of Flesh and Blood (1954; trans. 1958) and My Life with Ishmael (1969; trans. 1970).

From the 1950s on, Israeli literature, like that of Europe and the U.S., became more concerned with the individual, with problems of loneliness and alienation. The highly regarded novelist Amos Oz (1939– ) wrote in My Michael (1968; trans. 1972) of a young housewife’s breakdown. As an aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, national themes again became important in Israeli literature. Thus Oz’s later work, such as The Hill of Evil Counsel (1976; trans. 1978), mixes fact and fiction in a story of the revolutionary plotting that led to Israeli independence. An earlier work, Touch the Water, Touch the Wind (1973; trans. 1974) deals symbolically with the main character’s escapes—first from the European Holocaust and then from the 1967 war. A Perfect Peace (1982; trans. 1985) deals with the clash between two generations of a kibbutz family in the mid-1960s; and Oz’s nonfictional work In the Land of Israel (1982; trans. 1983) provides a compassionate, yet objective study of his country.

The work of Aharon Appelfeld (1932– ), who settled in Israel in 1947, also evokes the Holocaust and his own childhood experiences in Central Europe. Flight, attempts to hide, and efforts to exorcise the past are themes of his short stories and several novels. Among the latter, Badenheim 1939 (1980; trans. 1980), Tzili: The Story of a Life (1982; trans. 1983), and To the Land of the Cattails (1986; trans. 1986) have been widely acclaimed.

Contemporary Israeli poetry has won worldwide acclaim. The work of Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) was outstanding. His collection Amen (1977) was translated by the author and the English poet Ted Hughes. Selected Poems was published in English translation in 1968, and a bilingual edition of Love Poems was issued in 1981. His novel Not of This Time, Not of This Place (1963; trans. 1968) is another exploration of Jewish identity. It is a multilayered account of an Israeli archaeologist who must reconcile his German-Jewish past with present crises, personal and political. Amichai’s short stories were published in English in 1984 under the title The World Is a Room, and Other Stories. Two other noteworthy poets are Amir Gilboa (1917–84) and T. Carmi (1925– ). Gilboa went to Palestine from the Ukraine in 1937. Using biblical motifs and symbolism, he wrote of the destruction of European Jewry—one of his pervasive themes. Carmi (pseudonym of Carmi Charney) was born in New York City and settled in Israel in 1947. Colloquial Hebrew phrases are intermingled with biblical quotations in his highly structured and rhythmically controlled poetry. N.N.G., NAHUM NORBERT GLATZER, Ph.D.