Reb Gershon and Reb Yudl: Thoughts on the Achievement of Gershon Shaked on the First Anniversary of his Death

The late professor of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University Gershon Shaked pointed to an essay he published in 1978 on S. Y. Agnon's novel Hakhnasat kalah as one of his best pieces of critical writing. As a tribute to Shaked, this article examines the scholarly qualities that the article exemplified. Shaked deployed theoretical tools taken from structuralism, genre theory, folklore studies, as well as his own concepts developed in his earlier work on Agnon in order to make sense of the difficult problems presented by the novel. The article further suggests an affinity between Reb Yudl, the protagonist of the novel, and Shaked himself.