The present project, by employing Roman Jakobson's conceptualisation of parallelism and literary linguistic analysis, argues that linguistic parallelism occurring at all levels of language (from phoneme to syntagmeme) in biblical Hebrew poetry has a dual rhetorical discourse function of foregrounding and structural cohesion. It is proposed that patterned grammatical-syntactic continuity and deviation at a colometric level creates poetic unity that harmonises the poem’s internal diversity and poetic variation across macrostructural levels that fosters foreground semantic components of the text. As the poetic text moves forward as a discourse, the diversity created by grammatical-syntactic deviation becomes patterned with a regular form of sequence that creates structural cohesion within the poem as discourse. After outlining the state of current research on biblical Hebrew poetry and exploring Jakobson’s poetics and their relevance to this project, the heart of the work is a detailed analysis of each poetic line in Psalms 113–118. These were chosen as a representative sample in order to test the validity of the model.

This thesis examines how silence was understood by speakers of biblical Hebrew. Using the biblical books, Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, and inscriptions, it evaluates how seven lexemes referring to silence were used. Each reference was examined for clues to meaning, using syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, parallels, glosses, antonyms, and causal relations. The early versions (Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Syriac) were consulted to see if they might shed further light on ancient understandings of these words. Semitic languages were also surveyed for potential cognates that might reveal diachronic semantic development. The chosen lexemes divided into two related domains: restraint (of sound, of action) and cessation (of sound, of motion, of life). Part 1 covers words indicating restraint. Part 2 covers words indicating cessation. Part 3 briefly introduces peripheral words. The conclusion offers some observations about the field as a whole, describing how the lexemes overlap and differ. Tables and diagrams are offered to represent the richness and versatility of this field graphically.

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Bibliography: p. 299-315.

Bibliography: p. 323-332. / This study posits that the concept of the Other is central in modern Hebrew literature. It traces its beginnings in Jewish thought to the Bible, and connects the creation and Eden narratives to contemporary psychoanalytic thought on ego formation and the Other. It considers the importance of the figure of the talush to the focus on the Other in modern Hebrew literature and suggests that the conflicts of the collective versus the individual that are expressed in the early stages of the literature do not disappear as it moves into the present day, but are discernible in different guise and can be seen in the burden of group consciousness which besets Hebrew authors and vitiates their attempts to configure the unique. The feminized Other is seen as especially important in this regard because of the collective textual and thus social repression of women in the tradition. Its presentation is thus taken as a useful measure of the successful resolution of individual as opposed to group narration. The modern Hebrew texts analyzed, beginning with a poem by the late Haskhalah poet, Y.L. Gordon through D. Baron, M.Y. Berdichewski, A. Kahana-Carman, S.Y. Agnon, A Appelfeld and ending with a novel by the contemporary Israeli writer, D. Grossman, support this decision as the collective is subjugated only in Kahana-Carman's text where the feminine is fully realized. The thesis examines the ways the eight narratives grapple with the awareness of the Other, and focuses on the aspects, including body, war and language, that are highlighted variously in each text. The struggles of modern Hebrew writers are also viewed as part of the difficulties entailed in the denotative endeavors of writing itself which strives, towards the always elusive Other that predates ego-formation and thus individuality itself. It is proposed that this intensifies the tensions about the Other in modern Hebrew literature which derive from its specific cultural heritage.

Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, The Satmar Rebbe, (1886-1978) was a well known Hassidic rabbinical leader of the 20th century. He was born into a rabbinical 'dynasty' and was ordained as a rabbi, Rosh Yeshiva and Rebbe in Hungary at a young age. It was in Hungary that his anti-Zionist views were developed. Notwithstanding the annihilation of Eastern European Jewry during the Holocaust, these views became more extreme with the passing years, and in some of his writings he explained the Shoa as a punishment from G-d for the "Zionist sin". The dissertation investigates the Rebbe's writings, which include: his biblical commentary, letters, speeches and sermons, hallachic responsa and philosophical contemplations; with special attention to his most famous book: "Vayoel Moshe".

The aim of this thesis is to compare works of drama regarding the suffering of the human being in the context of life and literature and in relation to the issue of justice, which revolves around the impact of Justice, Humanity and God. My aim is to look at the development of the genre of suffering starting with the Ancient Near Eastern Literature, to define the genre in its development and to characterise its features in the various literatures discussed, especially with respect to the Book of Job.

Bibliography: pages 202-210. / When one reads Dr Sonne's poetry (Avraham ben Yitzchak, or ABY) from time to time, it strikes one as being the most unique in Hebrew, unlike all other classic poems of his era. Instead of writing about the nationalistic or Zionistic spirit, ABY dealt with the poems in a very personal but objective lyric way, which touches the heart. The nature description is unusual and unique, and the special aura or outlook, the philosophy, something that is not quite Jewish, was a taste of something else (the other, different) and this work contends that on examining this element of distinction, it became most obvious that here was a testimony of Chinese culture that had invested itself into a sensitive philosopher and touched his heart and made an imprint upon him.

Bibliography: leaves [131]-133. / The story of Samuel forms an integral part of the Hebrew saga, marking the transition from the period of Judges to the Israelite monarchy. Book I of Samuel is unusual in that it portrays the birth, death and major episodes of the prophet's life. In fact, Samuel, along with Moses and Jeremiah, is one of the few characters whose full life history is documented in the Biblical text: we not only have the significant events which lead up to his birth, but he makes an appearance again after his death. Given this detail, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether a re-reading of the character of Samuel through a psychological model can throw fresh insights on how the Israelites effected the transition from a theocracy to a monarchy. The choice of Erikson is motivated by two considerations. In the first, Erikson extended the boundaries of Freudian psychoanalysis by describing both normal as well as abnormal development. His ego-psychology, with its eight-stage developmental plan, its theses and antitheses, is particularly suitable in the case of Samuel, whose life-cycle for the most part can be viewed as problematic, a series of crises. In the second, though he wrote prolifically on numerous leading historical figures and literary characters, Erikson himself never analysed a Biblical figure. This work is, however, not confined to a psychological typification of the character of Samuel. It is intended to be an interdisciplinary study: it deals with the text as an integrated literary unit and relies on the insights of classical Biblical scholarship to support many of its conclusions.

Bibliography: leaves 178-182.