This essay was adapted from a book launch at the Hebrew University on May 22nd, 2024, and translated from the Hebrew by Amital Stern.This is the second AJR essay on Yosefa Raz's The Poetics of Prophecy. I noted the first here.... In other words, while modernists believe that the mirror in which the prophets are reflected to them is obscure, stained, scratched, or even fragmented, these flaws exist not on the mirror at all, but on the prophets themselves, who are scratched, stained, or broken. On the contrary, not only modern readers, but also the great prophets themselves are to blame for these weaknesses that find their way into the nostalgic embrace between the two. This, then, is the middle ground between new and old, between post-Enlightenment poets and the ancient prophets who love them back – a sad, weak love based on loss. ...
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