POST-BIBLICAL HEBREW LITERATURE AN ANTHOLOGY ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY B. HALPER, M.A., Ph.D. _Dropsie College, Philadelphia_ [Illustration] PHILADELPHIA THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE Although the Hebrew language ceased to be the vernacular of the majority of the Jewish people during the last years of the second temple, it has, throughout the various periods, with but few exceptions, persisted as the medium for the noblest literary productions of the nation. Irrespective of the language spoken by the people in the countries of their adoption, the best thoughts of the Jewish writers found expression in the holy tongue. The Gemara, which is preponderately in Aramaic, can hardly be regarded as an exception, for it consists, in the main, of records of oral discussions and arguments, which were naturally carried on in the vernacular, and as such it is not to be classed among works of literature in its narrower sense. On the other hand, it is very significant that the Midrash and some of the midrashic elements in the Talmud are mostly in Hebrew, and it is just these parts which may claim to be regarded as literature. Then the prayers, many of which date from the early centuries of the present era, and the piyyutim are practically all in Hebrew.