Ben ha-Makom

This is a story about Jesus as a young Jewish man, filled with doubts amongst the landscapes of the Land of Israel. With vibrant language and powerful expression that approaches the peaks of Hebrew literature, the concept of place receives a new and surprising interpretation. Ben ha-Maqom reimagines the figure of Jesus and portrays him in an original way, from a unique point of view. Hayyim Hazaz wrote the novella Ben ha-Maqombetween the years 1946 and 1948, but war and personal tragedy prevented him from completing it. Some chapters of the work were published in periodicals at the time, but only now, with the discovery of the original manuscript, are all the completed chapters seeing the light of publication. 

The book is accompanied by rare landscape drawings by Anna Ticho, which are published for the first time from her archive by courtesy of the Israel Museum. Dr. Yehiel Kara of the Academy for the Hebrew Language contributed explanatory linguistic and terminological notes. These notes make Hazaz’s rich and unique language more accessible to a younger generation and offer a key to one of the valuable treasures of Hebrew literature. The book concludes with a short afterword by Dr. Gil Weissblei, curator of the Hazaz Archive, who traces the migrations of the text over the years.

Hayyim Hazaz (1898-1973), winner of the first Israel Prize for Literature, was one of the giants of Hebrew literature and among the influential figures who shaped Israeli culture at its origins. His oeuvre expresses the full historical depth of the Jewish past. With its many characters and events, sharp lines and colors, and rush of subjects, this is the richest tapestry created by a single Hebrew author, showing the marks of the entire Jewish library.