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The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Daily Prayer Book

The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Daily Prayer Book

Current price: $170.00
Publication Date: October 1st, 2025
Publisher:
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in Ass
ISBN:
9781874774501
Pages:
464

Description

The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy is the first comprehensive academic study of its kind in over a century. It integrates material from biblical literature, Second Temple literature - including the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran and Jewish Hellenistic literature - rabbinic literature, early Christian literature, the Cairo Genizah, classical piyut, and medieval manuscripts and commentary, along with modern philological, literary, and historical research. Since the liturgy reflects the history of Judaism, its study becomes an expedition through the pathways of Jewish history and thought
from biblical to modern times. By integrating historical, literary, and theological perspectives, this study succeeds in clarifying many heretofore obscure liturgical issues.

About the Author

Reuven Kimelman is Professor of Classical Judaica at Brandeis University and rabbi of the Beth Abraham Sephardic Congregation of New England. He is the author of The Mystical Meaning of 'Lekhah Dodi' and 'Kabbalat Shabbat' (Hebrew; 2003) and a contributor to The Cambridge History of Judaism and The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology.