SOURCE: Shaked, Gershon. “Midrash and Narrative: Agnon's ‘Agunot.’” In Midrash and Literature, edited by Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick; chapter translated by Lois Bar-Yaacov, pp. 285-303. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986.

In the following chapter from a collection of essays discussing literary manifestations of Midrash, an ancient biblical form of exegesis, Shaked demonstrates how Agnon's early story “Agunot” uses forms of intertextuality borrowed from old Hebrew traditions.

I

From love of our language and adoration of holiness I abase myself before the words of the Torah, and starve myself by abstaining from the words of the Sages, keeping these words within me so that they may be fitted altogether upon my lips. If the Temple still stood, I should take my place on the dais with my fellow poets and daily repeat the song which the Levites used to chant in the Holy Temple. Now, when...