HEBREW ANNUAL REVIEW Volume 5 1981 Editor DAVID GOLOMB The Ohio State University Associate Editor GILA RAMRAS-RAUCH The Ohio State University Bibliographic AMNON ZIPIN Consultant The Ohio State University Editorial Board ROBERT ALTER University of California, Berkeley WARREN BARGAD Spertus College of Judaica ISAAC BARZILAY Columbia University JOSHUA BLAU The Hebrew University, Jerusalem ROBERT GORDIS The Jewish Theological Seminary of America MENAl;IEM Z. KADDARI Bar-Ilan University SHELOMO MORAG The Hebrew University, Jerusalem STANLEY NASH Hebrew Union College, New York HERBERT H. PAPER Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati DAVID B. WEISBERG Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati HEBREW ANNUAL REVIEW A Journal of Studies of Hebrew Language and Literature Volume 5 1981 Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University Copies of Hebrew Annual Review may be ordered from: Publications Sales Office Ohio State University Press 2070 Neil Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43210 All other correspondence relating to the Hebrew Annual Review should be addressed to: The Editor, Hebrew Annual Review Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 184 l Millikin Road Columbus, Ohio 43210 This volume was made possible by funds contributed by: The Melton Center for Jewish Studies at The Ohio State University, Mr. Howard Knofsky, The Lippy Foundation, Dr. Samuel L. Portman, Dr. Steven A. Tuckerman, and Mr. Fred Yenkin. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS JOSHUA BLAU (Ph.D., Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1950) is the Max Schloessinger Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a member of the Hebrew Language Academy and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Hu­ manities and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is the author of numerous publications, among which are the following: The Responsa of Moses ben Maimon I-III (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1957-71; A Grammar of Medieval Judeo­ Arabic (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1961; The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic, Oxford, 1965; Pseudo-Corrections in Some Semitic Languages, Jerusalem, 1970; Phonology and Mor­ phology of Biblical Hebrew (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv, 1972-73; The Renaissance of Modern Hebrew and Modern Literary Arabic (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1976; A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Wies­ baden, 1976; An Adverbial Construction in Hebrew and Arabic, Je­ rusalem, 1977. More recently, he is Corresponding Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. A Grammar of Medieval Judea-Arabic has appeared in a second enlarged edition, Jerusalem, 1980. He has also published Judea-Arabic Literature, Selected Texts, Jerusalem, 1980. SHMUEL BOLOZKY (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1972) is an Associate Professor of Modern Hebrew at the University of Massachusetts/ Amherst. Previously ( 1972-1978) he was Lecturer in Linguistics at Tel Aviv University. His publications have appeared in Journal of Linguistics, Linguistic Inquiry, Lingua, Afroasiatic Linguistics, G/ossa, Hebrew Annual Review, Hebrew Computational Linguistics. MONICA DEVENS (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1978) is an Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Linguistics at Pomona College, Claremont, California. Her research interests center on phonetic prob­ lems in Ethiopic and Hebrew. Her publications have appeared in Afroasiatic Linguistics and the Journal of Semitic Studies. v VI LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS DAVID FINK (Ph.D.-Yale University) is an Assistant Professor in the Hebrew and East Asian Languages and Literatures Program and the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research centers on gram­ matical and stylistic features of post-Biblical Hebrew. DAVID c. JACOBSON (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1977) is an Assistant Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. His article, "The Recovery of Myth: M.Y. Berdyczewski and Hasidism" appeared in Hebrew Annual Review, Volume 2 (1978). LAWRENCE KAPLAN (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1976) is associate pro­ fessor of Rabbinics and Jewish Philosophy at McGill University. His articles have appeared in Commentary, Forum, Harvard Theological Review, Judaism, and Tradition. His translation of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's essay "Halakhic Man" is scheduled for publication by the Jewish Publication Society. E. JOHN REVELL (Ph.D., Toronto, 1962) is a Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto. His publications include Biblical Texts with Palestinian Pointing and their Accents (MS 4 ), Missoula, 1977, and a number of articles, mostly dealing with the vocalization or punctuation of various forms of Biblical text. ELANA SHOHAMY (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1978) is the coordi­ nator of the Hebrew language division, University of California, Berkeley, and is currently completing a post doctoral program at Stanford University School of Education. Her main research and publications are in the area of testing and evaluation in second lan­ guages. NAOMI SOKOLOFF (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1980) is an Assistant Pro­ fessor of Modern Hebrew at the University of Arizona. CONTENTS On Pausal Lengthening, Pausal Stress Shift, Philippi's Law and Rule Ordering in Biblical Hebrew Joshua Blau . Note on Frequency in Phonetic Change Shmuel Bolozky . I 5 Misconceptions about Accent and National Origin Among Native Israeli Hebrew Speakers Monica S. Devens . 21 Aspects in the Misne Tora David Fink. 37 Religious Experience in the Early Poetry of Yocheved Bat-Miriam David Jacobson. 47 "And the Lord Sought to Kill Him" (Exod 4:24): Yet Once Again Lawrence Kaplan. 65 Syntactic/Semantic Structure and the Reflexes of Original Short a in Tiberian Pointing E. J. Revell . 75 The Cloze Procedure and its Applicability for Testing Hebrew as a Foreign Language Elana Shohamy. 101 Contrast, Continuity and Contradiction: Opening Signals in A. B. Yehoshua's "A Poet's Continuing Silence" Naomi B. Sokoloff. I I 5 vii .