From Our Editors
One of the best-loved anthologies of rabbinic lore has been compiled by Hebrew poet laureate Hayim Nahman Bialik and noted Hebrew editor and publisher Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky and translated from the Hebrew by William G. Braude. Offers a wide spectrum of Jewish literary inventiveness on a variety of topics including God, good and evil, and humans and society. Postponed from September
From the Publisher
The first complete English translation of the Hebrew classic Sefer
Ha-Aggadah brings to the English-speaking world the greatest and
best-loved anthology of classical Rabbinic literature ever
compiled. First published in Odessa in 1908-11, it was recognized
immediately as a masterwork in its own right, and reprinted
numerous times in Israel.
The Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and the renowned editor
Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, the architects of this masterful
compendium, selected hundreds of texts from the Talmud and
midrashic literature and arranged them thematically, in order to
provide their contemporaries with easy access to the national
literary heritage of the Jewish people -- the texts of Rabbinic
Judaism that remain at the heart of Jewish literacy today.
Bialik and Ravnitzky chose Aggadah -- the non-legal portions of the
Talmud and Midrash -- for their anthology. Loosely translated as
"legends", Aggadah includes the genres of biblical exegesis,
stories about biblical characters, the lives of the Talmudic era
sages and their contemporary history, parables, proverbs, and
folklore. A captivating melange of wisdom and piety, fantasy and
satire, Aggadah is the expressive medium of the Jewish creative
genius.
The arrangement of this compendium reflects the theological
concerns of the Rabbinic sages: the role of Israel and the nations;
God, good and evil; human relations; the world of nature; and the
art of healing. Here, the reader who wants to explore traditional
Jewish views on a particular subject is treated to a selection of
relevant texts at his fingertips but will soon become immersed in a
way of thinking, exploring, and questioning that is the hallmark of
Jewish inquiry.
"Whatever the imagination can invent is found in the Aggadah,"
wrote the historian Leopold Zunz, "its purpose always being to
teach man the ways of God." The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah,
now available in william Braude''s superbly annotated translation,
enables modern Jews to experience firsthand the richness and
excitement of their cultural inheritance.
From the Jacket
The first complete English translation of the Hebrew classic Sefer
Ha-Aggadah brings to the English-speaking world the greatest and
best-loved anthology of classical Rabbinic literature ever
compiled. First published in Odessa in 1908-11, it was recognized
immediately as a masterwork in its own right, and reprinted
numerous times in Israel.
The Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and the renowned editor
Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, the architects of this masterful
compendium, selected hundreds of texts from the Talmud and
midrashic literature and arranged them thematically, in order to
provide their contemporaries with easy access to the national
literary heritage of the Jewish people -- the texts of Rabbinic
Judaism that remain at the heart of Jewish literacy today.
Bialik and Ravnitzky chose Aggadah -- the non-legal portions of the
Talmud and Midrash -- for their anthology. Loosely translated as
"legends," Aggadah includes the genres of biblical exegesis,
stories about biblical characters, the lives of the Talmudic era
sages and their contemporary history, parables, proverbs, and
folklore. A captivating melange of wisdom and piety, fantasy and
satire, Aggadah is the expressive medium of the Jewish creative
genius.
The arrangement of this compendium reflects the theological
concerns of the Rabbinic sages: the role of Israel and the nations;
God, good and evil; human relations; the world of nature; and the
art of healing. Here, the reader who wants to explore traditional
Jewish views on a particular subject is treated to a selection of
relevant texts at his fingertips but will soon become immersed in a
way of thinking, exploring, and questioning that is the hallmark of
Jewishinquiry.
"Whatever the imagination can invent is found in the Aggadah,"
wrote the historian Leopold Zunz, "its purpose always being to
teach man the ways of God." The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah,
now available in william Braude''s superbly annotated translation,
enables modern Jews to experience firsthand the richness and
excitement of their cultural inheritance.
About the Author
Born of humble parentage in the Ukraine, HayymNahman Bialik went to Odessa in 1891, where he was a teacher and a publisher. He was influenced by early Zionist ideas, particularly those of Ahad Ha-Am, and lived in various places in Europe, writing and teaching. By the time Bialik settled in Tel Aviv in 1924, his fame had become legendary. Bialik brought about a revolution in Hebrew poetry, avoiding European trends and drawing inspiration from early Hebrew literature. In prophetic, rhetorical poems of national revival, Bialik identified himself with the fate of his people and called upon Jews to express pride in their heritage and to resist the Russian pogroms. The crises of his generation were not Bialik's only themes, however; he wrote many lyric poems of a personal character and about nature. He also wrote short stories, translated into Hebrew works by such authors as Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Heinrich Heine, and wrote a variety of essays on Hebrew literature, language, style, and culture. Israel's highest literary prize and an Israeli publishing house are named for Bialik. Bialik died in 1934.
Hardcover
920 Pages, 8.85 x 11.2 x 1.9 IN
November 10, 1992
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
0805241132
9780805241136