Are you looking for ways to hone your skills in biblical Hebrew? One of the best ways to do that is to read texts written in the Hebrew of the talmudim, midrashim, piyyut, and miqraot gedolot, and the Hebrew of medieval and modern poets like Dunash ben Labrat, Bialik, and Amichai. Sages, scholars, and poets draw on the linguistic resources and fund of metaphors Hebrew offers them in the age they write. They often drink from the well of biblical Hebrew. Figuring out the biblical sources of the diction and concepts a later Hebrew author adopts is a great exercise.
Jonathan Paradise has been kind enough to allow me to include here a pdf of the text of a lovely poem by Amichai, with commentary by him. The poem is the latest example of a weekly poetry column Paradise has put together for some time. If you would like to receive a Hebrew “Poem of the Week” with commentary from Paradise, email him at the address provided on his University of Minnesota faculty page, where he teaches in the Classics and Near Eastern Studies department.
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