GEC 14 – WORLD LITERATURE

MODULE 3
HEBREW LITERATURE

FLORES, CHRISTINE JOY

SUBMITTED BY:

BSN III
02.19.23
 GEC 14 – WORLD LITERATURE

MODULE 3
HEBREW LITERATURE
Research about these Hebrew authors in the internet:

1) Who is Simon Bacher? What were his literary works?

Simon Bacher, a poet and Hebrew translator. Bacher was born in Szent Miklos, Hungary.
In 1867 he moved to Budapest, where he was employed as a bookkeeper. From 1874 until his
death he served as the treasurer of the Jewish community. Bacher wrote poetry in the flowery
style of the Haskalah and also translated German and Hungarian poetry into Hebrew.

He was a regular contributor to the Hebrew periodicals Ha-Ḥ avaẓ ẓ elet and Kokhevei
Yiẓ ḥ ak. In 1865 his Hebrew translation of Lessing's Nathan der Weise appeared in Vienna, and in
1868 he published Zemirot ha-Areẓ ("Songs of the Land"), an anthology of translations from
Hungarian poetry.

2) Who is Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo? What were her literary works?

Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo, an Italian Hebraist and Hebrew poet. Morpurgo was born in
Trieste and educated at home in Hebrew classics and secular subjects with her brother David and
her younger cousin, Samuel David *Luzzatto (1800–1865), who became a prominent figure in
modern Jewish thought and Hebrew literature, known as Shadal. Shadal credited Rachel with a
major role in influencing his love for Jewish learning in general and Hebrew poetry in particular.

In 1819, when she was 29 years old, Rachel married Jacob Morpurgo, a businessman
from Gorzia, despite objections from her family. Devoted to serving her husband, who
disapproved of her studies and literary efforts, and eventually the mother of three sons and a
daughter, Morpurgo could only write late at night and on Rosh Ḥ odesh.

In 1847, 30 years after its inception, Shadal published their poetic exchange in Kokhavei
Yitzhak, a journal devoted to modern Hebrew literature and enlightenment. Some enlightened
readers refused to accept that her Hebrew poems were actually written by a woman; others
praised her for rising above women's ordinary activities and called her "Queen of the Hebrew
Versifiers." Her letters and poems, in both Hebrew and Aramaic, invoke the matriarchs as well as
the patriarchs, the hope for a return to Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, a rare Hebrew description
of a relationship between women, and the burdens of raising her own children. She also
expresses her trepidation as a woman entering the literary realm of men.

Morpurgo regularly signed herself as "The Worm," or "Rimah," the initials of Rachel
Morpugo Ha-Ketanah (in Hebrew, "Little Rachel Morpurgo"), expressions of modesty often
employed by prominent rabbis.

Rachel Morpurgo's Hebrew writings were published in Ugav Rahel: Shirim ve-Iggerot,
ed. Vittorio (Isaac Ḥ ayyim) Castiglione (Cracow: Yosef Fisher, 1891; ed. Y. Zemora, Tel Aviv:
Mahberot Lesifrut, 1943); and in English in Nina Salaman, Rahel Morpurgo and the
Contemporary Hebrew Poets in Italy (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1924).
3) Who is Shmuel Yosef Agnon? What were his literary works?

Shmuel Yosef Agnon was born in Galicia in 1888. He immigrated to Jaffa in 1908, but
spent 1913 through 1924 in Germany. In 1924, he returned to Jerusalem, where he lived until his
death in 1970.
“A man of unquestionable genius” and “one of the great storytellers of our time,” S.Y.
Agnon is among the most effusively praised and widely translated Hebrew authors.

Writings published posthumously

Shira (1971), a novel set in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s.
A City and the Fullness Thereof (1973), a collection of stories and legends about
Buczacz, the town of Agnon's youth.
In Mr. Lublin's Shop (1974), set in Germany of the First World War. (Translated)
Within the Wall (1975), a collection of four stories.
From Myself to Myself (1976), a collection of essays and speeches.
Introductions (1977), stories.
The communities he passed through in his life are reflected in his works:
Galicia: in the books The Bridal Canopy, A City and the Fullness Thereof, and A Guest
for the Night.
Germany: in the stories "Fernheim," "Thus Far," and "Between Two Cities."
Jaffa: in the stories "Oath of Allegiance," "Yesteryear," and "The Dune."
Jerusalem: "Prayer," "Yesteryear," "Ido ve-Inam," and "Shira."
Writings published during his life:
The Bridal Canopy (1931), an epic describing Galician Judaism at the start of the
nineteenth century. (Translated)
Of Such and Of Such, (Translated) a collection of stories, including
"And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight"
At the Handles of the Lock (1923), a collection of love stories, including
"In the Prime of Her Life"
A Guest for the Night (1938), a novel (Translated)
Yesteryear (1945), a novel (Translated)
Near and Apparent, a collection of stories, including
"The Two Sages Who Were In Our City"
Thus Far, a collection of stories, including
"Thus Far"
The Fire and the Wood, a collection of Hasidic stories
From Then and From Now, a collection, 1931
Love Stories, a collection, 1931
Peacefully, a collection, Shocken, 1935
Betrothed, a novella, 1943 (Translated)
The Outcast
My Grandfather's Talmud
 Resources:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bacher-simon

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/morpurgo-rachel-luzzatto

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shmuel-yosef-quot-shai-quot-agnon
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shmuel_Yosef_Agnon#:~:text=Writings%20publi
shed%20posthumously,-Shira%20(1971)%2C&text=A%20City%20and%20the%20Fullness%20
Thereof%20(1973)%2C%20a%20collection,the%20town%20of%20Agnon's%20youth.&text=W
ithin%20the%20Wall%20(1975)%2C,Introductions%20(1977)%2C%20stories.