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The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature argues that the institution of the yeshiva and its ideals of Jewish textual study played a seminal role in the resurgence of Hebrew literature in modern times. Departing from the conventional interpretation of the origins of Hebrew literature in secular culture, Marina Zilbergerts points to the practices and metaphysics of Talmud study as its essential animating forces. Focusing on the early works and personal histories of founding figures of Hebrew literature, from Moshe Leib Lilienblum to Chaim Nachman Bialik, The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature reveals the lasting engagement of modern Jewish letters with the hallowed tradition of rabbinic learning.
List of contents
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Men of Letters
2. How the Word Became Flesh
3. Texts on Trial
4. Literary Apostasy
5. Readers' Paradise
6. The Talmudic Passion
Epilogue: Reflections on the Value of Literature
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Marina Zilbergerts is a scholar of Jewish Literature and Thought. She is the author of The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature (2022). From 2016 to 2022, she was the Lipton Assistant Professor in Eastern European Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She grew up in Zhitomir, Tel Aviv, and Toronto and received her PhD from Stanford University.
