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W. J. van Bekkum, ed. Hebrew Poetry from Late Antiquity: Liturgical Poems of Yehudah; Critical Edition with Introduction and Commentary. Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998. xxx, 183 pp.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2003

Debra Reed Blank
Affiliation:
Jewish Theological Seminary New York, New York
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Extract

Late-antique Israel enjoyed astonishing literary creativity and output in the form of the piyyut, which offered a poetic alternative to the standard liturgical language. The treasures from the Genizah have enriched our knowledge of the paytanim of this period, and important collections of the works of Yosi ben Yosi, Yannai, Shimon bar Megas, and Kallir have been compiled in recent years. But alongside these well-known paytanim were others, often anonymous but sometimes not, thanks to the use of name acrostics, a characteristic style of the piyyut. Numerous compositions identify a paytan whose name was Yehudah, and now his oeuvre has been ably compiled by van Bekkum.

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BOOK REVIEWS
Copyright
© 2002 by the Association for Jewish Studies

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