The Bridal Canopy

The Bridal Canopy ("Hakhnasat Kallah"), a novel by Shmuel Yosef Agnon, is considered to be one of the first classics of modern Hebrew literature. At the time of its publication in 1931, Hebrew had only recently been revived as a spoken language. Although Jewish commentators and writers continued to write in Hebrew, it was not a spoken language for nearly 2000 years. In 1966, Agnon shared the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first author to do so while writing in modern Hebrew.

Agnon's novel describes the fictional wanderings of Reb Yudel through the Jewish villages of Galicia at the beginning of the 19th century, in search of a bridegroom and a dowry for his daughter. A modern critic described Agnon's fictional Reb Yudel as "naively pious." [cite journal | first=Harold | last=Fisch | title=The Dreaming Narrator in S. Y. Agnon | journal= Novel: A Forum on Fiction | volume= 4 | issue=1 | date=Autumn 1970 | pages=49–68 | doi=10.2307/1345251] Others have characterized the fictional Reb Yudel as a Jewish archetype of Don Quixote. [cite web| url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/agnon.htm | title=Shmuel (Yosef) Agnon (1888-1970) - pseudonym of Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes ]

Avraham Holtz has explored the roots of Agnon's central character in a character from Yiddish folklore, Reb Yudel Hasid. [cite journal | first= Arnold J. | last= Band | title=Holtz's Annotated Edition of Agnon's Hakhnasat kallah | journal= Prooftexts | volume= 23 | issue=3 | date= Fall 2003 | pages =397–407 | doi=10.1353/ptx.2004.0002 ]

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