A rabbi reads the Psalms

"Why another book on the Psalms? Surely there are enough already. What is the justification for yet one more, and by someone who first found the Psalms almost boringly the same?" "Jonathan Magonet has a ready answer. After teaching the Psalms for twenty years he has found that within the vast literature about them there is very little that introduces the kinds of interpretations made by the rabbis, whether ancient, mediaeval or modern. Moreover, there are very few books which provide a 'user-friendly' introduction to how one actually sets about working with the Hebrew text or gives access to the richness and complexity of the language of the Psalms to the non-Hebrew reader." "It was his first close acquaintance with the Hebrew text, in preparing some translations of the Psalms for publication, which transformed Jonathan Magonet's view of them and helped him to discover their richness. So this book aims to share with the reader the special world that was opened up to him in this way. It provides an introduction to the nature of biblical poetry, a guide to some of the poetic structures that recur in the Psalms, and studies a number of Psalms as a way of illustrating these aspects - and for the fun of exploring the individual dynamic and meaning."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.