The Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer
A Literary and Historical Commentary on the Prayerbook
Professor Kimelman explores how the liturgy of formal prayer affects the feelings and thoughts of the individual worshipper. He argues that this happens not only because of the logic of the formal argument of the liturgy and the structure and sequence of its elements, but because of the texture of its language, its use of images, and the overall context within which it is set. Each chapter focuses on a particular element of the liturgy, and the whole is then brought together in a wide-ranging epilogue that draws out the thematic unities.
More info
Reuven Kimelman’s ground-breaking study of the history and literature of the Jewish liturgy incorporates modern literary theory and recent historical research to explore the rhetoric of Jewish prayer.
Professor Kimelman’s literary approach to the liturgy shows how each prayer is a literary whole with its own compositional integrity. Each essay presents the literary structure, the historical background, and the theology of the prayer. The integration of literary, historical, and theological approaches all converge to show how the liturgy engages the mind and mobilizes the emotions to create the experience of prayer.
The history of each prayer incorporates its linkage with the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran along with its contemporary setting and the history of commentary. All this is woven together in order to present its full literary tapestry which includes form and content, mode of argumentation, texture of language, and re-use and recontextualizing of images. It is the interplay of all these factors along with the movement between surface and subtext that creates what Kimelman calls the rhetoric of the liturgy.
Each chapter can be enjoyed as a self-contained study of a part of the liturgy. The book works systematically through the liturgy starting with the morning blessings and concluding with the closing prayer, Aleynu. Some of the highlights of the book include the presentation of Mah Tovu as the psychological introduction to prayer and Adon Olam as the theological introduction. There is also fresh analysis of the structure of the Pesukei De-Zimra along with one of Ashre as the Shema of the Book of Psalms. The Shema itself is shown to be the rabbinic remoulding of a biblical covenant ceremony into a coronation ceremony, while the Amidah is revealed as a study in the rhetoric of redemption.
About the author
Reuven Kimelman is Professor of Rabbinic Literature at Brandeis University. He is also the author of The Mystical Meaning of Lekdah Dodi (forthcoming), as well as many articles on history, ethics, and liturgy in journals of scholarly and general interest.
Contents (provisional)
Note on Transliteration
1 Prologue
2 Mah Tovu as the Psychological Introduction to the Prayerbook
3 Adon Olam as the Theological Introduction to Prayer
4 The Morning Preliminaries: Getting Ready for Prayer
5 Ashrei: Psalm 145 as the Epitome of the Liturgy
6 Pesukei dezimra and the Liturgical Use of Scripture
7 The Shema Liturgy: From Covenant Ceremony to Coronation
8 The Amidah: Its Literary Structure and the Rhetoric of Redemption
9 The Aleinu: Its Meaning in Its Historical Context
10 Epilogue
Glossary
Bibliography
Index of Sources
Index of Authors
Subject Index