targum

Library

אהבת ציון

The Love of Zion

אברהם מאפו, 1853

The first modern Hebrew novel: a romance set in the days of Isaiah, written in deliberate Biblical Hebrew. Easier than it sounds if you have read Tanakh.

The opening

תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָיִם

Its interior inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem

(שיר השירים ג', י')

(Song of Songs 3:10)

55342 words, about 426 minutes of reading.

Read it Someone has already translated this one.