The Function of the Niphʿal in Biblical Hebrew in Relationship to Other Passive-Reflexive Verbal Stems and to the Puʿal and Hophʿal in Particular (review)

Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 217 Reviews and rhyme in Alterman's work. (In this regard it is appropriate to note Arnold Band's recent paper-yet unpublished-on semantic rhyme and his departure from Shavit's emphasis.) One of my first doctoral assignments in 1965 was to assess the positions of several critics (two of them in this collection) regarding the Holocaust specificity of themes in "Simhat 'Ani'im." It was actually my first exposure to Dan Miron's emphasis on the continuity between "Kokhavim baHutz" and "Simhat 'Ani'im" (see p. 98 of this volume). At the time I argued that-at least from the thematic point of view-the earlier and the later Alterman had too much in common to permit us to read the later cycle through the lens of the Holocaust. I now see that the problem is more complex, and more seasoned readers should welcome the chance to look at this and related questions through all the lenses provided by a book such as this. There is a variety of formalistic questions attached to this question, even though we must continue to insist that aesthetic issues are the proper concern of poetry criticism. The debate goes on through new frames like "New Historicism," and the public concerns with cultural desiderata continue to harass formalists. Genre concerns and social utility will tug at students for as long as literature will be taught. Anthologies such as this one are helpful mirrors of all these kinds of struggle. This particular anthology is helpful both in this way and as a series ofessays that recall a founder of modem Hebrew aesthetics. William Cutter Hebrew Union College Los Angeles, CA 90004 THE FUNCTION OF THE NIPHcAL IN BIBLICAL HEBREW IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PASSIVE-REFLEXIVE VERBAL STEMS AND TO THE PucAL AND HOPlfAL IN PARTICULAR. By P. A. Siebesma. Studia Semitica Neerlandica 28. Pp. ix + 207. Assen, the Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1991. Paper. Siebesma's doctoral dissertation, first published in Dutch in 1988, has now been made available in an excellent English translation. Since from the beginning of this century only two comprehensive studies on Hebrew verbal stems have been published, this detailed study of the function of the niph(al takes on added significance. Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 218 Reviews The first of the earlier publications was an article by M. Lambert, "L'emploi du Niph'al en hebreu," published in 1900 (REJ 41, pp. 196-214). Siebesma's main interest, however, is with a 1968 publication by the Swiss Hebrew scholar Ernst Jenni, Das hebriiische Pi'ei, a study of the pileI stem in 'Biblical Hebrew. Siebesma acknowledges that he chose Jenni's work as his starting point since the latter's approach to the study of other Hebrew verbal stems had been influenced by his views on the pileI. Siebesma does not always agree with Jenni's approach, particularly his assumption that verbal stems formed a system within which each stem had a clearly defined semantic function and meaning distinct from that of others. Siebesma takes a different view of the interrelation of the various verbal stems and states as the purpose of his dissertation "the description and study of the ni. in relation to the other 'passive' verbal stems (pass. qal, pu., ho., and hitp.)" (p. 32). Siebesma treats his subject in four lengthy chapters plus a very brief chapter of summary and conclusions. The first chapter offers a survey of the literature on verbal stems in Biblical Hebrew from the last century and a half. Throughout this and subsequent chapters, Siebesma draws heavily from four principal sources. The first is the grammar of W. Gesenius, who is recognized as "the founding father of Hebrew linguistics" (p. 2). The second is the previously referenced work of E. Jenni on the pi'el stem. The third is the unpublished Ph.D. dissertation of A. F. Bean, A Phenomenological Study of the Hithpa'el Verbal Stem in the Hebrew Old Testament (Louisville, Kentucky: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1976). The fourth source is that published by R. J. Williams, "The Passive Qal Theme in Hebrew," in Essays on the Ancient Semitic World (Toronto, 1970). The second chapter offers...