Intertextuality in the Novel Et hazamir by Haim Be'er

Abstract

The novel Et hazamir ʻThe Time of Singing/Trimmingʼ by Haim Be'er relates experiences of young recruit Nahum Gvirtz who was posted to serve in a rabbinical unit of Israel Defense Forces, just before the Six Day War. The novel is written in a highly sophisticated style, replete with allusions to the Hebrew Bible, less frequently to the Talmud and the New Testament. The allusions to the Hebrew classical texts  often have a form of microquotations, i.e. short phrases that can be recognized as quotations only thanks to their linguistic form, not to their meaning which is too general and unspecified. Because of this feature of the microquotations it seems that a translation of the novel which would be faithfull in terms of the style and its impact on the reader, is impossible. The function of those allusions is threefold: in most cases they create a mock-heroic effect, when they appear in passages referring to negative chatacters (exponents of religious zionism: Raphael Gvirtz,  Nathan Mivcar, members of decadent hasidic movement: Yidel Shubin and his masters), less frequently the allusions contribute to elevated style, when they refer to positive characters (Nahum Gvirtz, his mother Chava, and Ziser, an exponent of religious humanism). Last but not least the allusions are the base for jokes and amusing anecdotes.