Revealment And Concealment : Five Essays

by Hayyim Nahman Bialik

REVEALMENT AND CONCEALMENT is ... a series of profound and highly influential essays on Hebrew and Jewish culture ... collected in a new and handsomely produced English edition -- Jonathan Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement. This important collection gathers together five essays by Haim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), by all accounts the greatest modern Hebrew poet, and a writer who has long defied translation. A key figure in the renaissance of Hebrew Culture at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Translated by Zali Gurevitch who teaches at the Hebrew University and is the author of six books of poetry.

Genres: Essays

142 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2000

About the author

Hayim Nahman Bialik (Hebrew: חיים נחמן ביאליק‎; January 6, 1873 – July 4, 1934), also Chaim or Haim, was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew but also in Yiddish. Bialik was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry. He was part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to the breath of new life in Jewish life. Bialik ultimately came to be recognized as Israel's national poet.

Reviews

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to discuss here. I am in love with Ibis Editions, a small Israeli press that publishers translations of Hebrew and Arabic essays and poetry. Bialik is probably the most famous modern poet of pre-1948 Palestine, and he is still mandatory reading in Israel today. What comes out in his writing (and the afterward), however, is Bialik's complicated relationship to Zionism. He was not a crude nationalist, and even his work in Palestine is about being in exile. Curiously, he almost stopped writing poems once he moved to Tel Aviv.

Every essay collected here is worth reading a hundred times, but my favorite is the defense of halacha and duty.

I was amazed to see how similar Bialik's philosophy of language was to that of Wittgenstein, though I doubt they were familiar with each other.