SOURCE: Gold, Nili Scharf. “A Burning Bush or a Fire of Thorns: Toward a Revisionary Reading of Amichai's Poetry.” Prooftexts 14 (1994): 49-69.

In the following essay, Gold analyzes recurring motifs throughout Amichai's oeuvre.

I've filtered out of the Book of Esther the residue of vulgar joy, and out of the Book of Jeremiah the howl of pain in the guts. And out of the Song of Songs the endless search for love, and out of the Book of Genesis the dreams and Cain, and out of Ecclesiastes the despair and out of the Book of Job—Job. And from what was left over I pasted for myself a new Bible. Now I live censored and pasted and limited in peace. 

Hazman 29; Time, 29

Yehuda Amichai won the prestigious Israel Prize for the “revolution he created in Hebrew poetry.” He is often described as a pillar of modern Hebrew literature, and...