"Lege mich wie ein Siegel an deinen Arm!"

The Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) in the Bible is not only the oldest and best-known love poem in Hebrew literature, but also a thread that runs through and links together Jewish love texts from ancient times right down to contemporary literature. This book traces the history of the influence of the Song of Songs. In addition, twelve selected examples provide glimpses of a wide variety of life-worlds - familiar and unfamiliar, long past and shatteringly up to date - and thus sketches out an eventful history of the Jewish mentality.

All the historical variety of Jewish love literature - a literary treasury deserving to be unearthed, since it opens a particularly enchanting page in Judaism=s book of life.



Prof. Gabrielle Oberhänsli-Widmer is professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau.