This article analyzes two poetic units within a much longer composition composed by Yannai for recitation on Yom Kippur. Specifically, it offers readings of Unit 8, which prefaces the third blessing of the Amidah, and Unit 15, which concludes the work. Both units dwell on the physical experience of Yom Kippur and the ways in which ritual affects the body, permitting us to consider the role of “kinesthetic theology” – i.e., how physical expression and embodied experiences not only reflect but (...) shape belief – in the composition. (shrink)

The transformation of Noah into a Christian ideal in the writings of Aphrahat and Ephrem, with the resulting denigration of Noah in much rabbinic exegesis, is well documented. The purpose of this essay is to examine the characterization of Noah in the liturgical setting. Four groups of works are examined: the Hebrew Avodah poems and the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian ; and the kontakia of Romanos the Melodist and the liturgical poems of the Jewish poet Yannai. These sources reveal (...) that the individual poets felt great freedom to shape the character of Noah in distinctive ways, engaging with the various traditions of interpretation evident in the prose sources but using them in individualized ways. The resulting picture of Noah, when these poetic sources are brought to bear on the discussion, is much less predictable and more dynamic than might be assumed from study of the more“academic” prose sources alone. (shrink)