Customer Reviews

An Introductory Grammar of Rabbinic Hebrew

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I just read a review of this book that said it was the best book of its type. The truth is, that it is the ONLY book of its type. The only possible exception to that would be M. Segal's book from Oxford in 1927, but that book is out of date and was written only as a comprehensive reference grammar and not as a textbook.

On the other hand, this book, (which, incidently, was first published in Spanish in 1992) is an lesson-by-lesson textbook designed to introduce you to Rabbinic Hebrew (i. e. of the Mishnah, Tosefta, etc.) and its culture and literature. It provides practice passages for reading and other exercises. So, besides, being an excellent (and so far the only) update to Segal's reference grammar, it is (as far as I know) the only _textbook_ of Rabbinic Hebrew ever written. So, if you interested in this subject, you have little choice but to buy this book.

The only thing I can think to add to the previous review is that one does have to have a reasonable competence in Biblical (or perhaps Modern) Hebrew in order to use this book, tho' someone would be very unlikely to want to use it without first knowing biblical Hebrew. A copy of Segal's Mishnaic Hebrew grammar would be useful as a supplimentary reference, and a Biblical grammar too as this book is not strong on morphology. But syntax and idiom are very well handled and it is these that make the Mishnah so impenetrable.

As to the "reasonable price", sadly this volume in paperback is at a typically exhorbitant Brill price. And the hardback is ridiculously costly. Still, there IS a paperback, so Brill are moving in the right direction!

Simply the best grammar ever published for rabbinic hebrew -- now that it's available at a reasonable price in paperback, go for it!