In the Shadow of a Burning Bush: Poems on Exodus

Poetry. IN THE SHADOW OF A BURNING BUSH follows Azriel's poetic commentary on Genesis, Threads from a Coat of Many Colors, with an even more powerful commentary on Exodus. It is, simultaneously, a retelling of the Exodus story, a reliving of Jewish history, and an expression of contemporary Jewish experience. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the Torah and the rabbinic texts, Azriel illustrates the story of Moses and the Exodus in a series of inspired poems, approaching its themes with a mastery of poetic forms -- from sonnet to free verse -- and a brilliant visual and auditory imagination. He links many aspects of the biblical account with later episodes in Jewish history, such as the Holocaust. Azriel writes with the kind of authority rarely found among modern poets.

Yakov Azriel was born in New York, in 1950, as Gerald Rosenkrantz. After receiving his B.A. in English literature, summa cum laude, at Brooklyn College, in 1971, he moved to Israel, where he changed his name to Yakov Azriel. He studied at the Mercaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, in Jerusalem, and the Har-Etzion Yeshiva, in Alon-Shvut, Israel, and later completed an M.A., with distinction, and a doctorate in Judaica, concentrating on the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav. His first book of poems, Threads from a Coat of Many Colors: Poems on Genesis, was published by Time Being Books, in 2005. Over ninety of his poems on Biblical and Jewish themes have been published in journals in the U.S., the U.K., and Israel since he began submitting poems, in 2000.