The paucity of material, which has limited the study of Aramaic for too long, is gradually being alleviated. An ever growing body of well-edited texts is being made available to the scholarly world. These publications have provoked a number of important and penetrating linguistical and grammatical studies. Generally, however, corresponding literary studies of these texts are still lacking. The present work is an attempt to add a literary approach to the earlier analyses. The study deals with Aramaic poetry of the period between c. 100 B.C.E. and c. 600 C.E. The discussion of the textual material is organized in a number of levels, one superimposed upon the other. The basis is formed by a close exegetical and literary reading of the poems to elucidate essential elements of content, style and form. Particular attention is paid to structure and composi tion as a function of the content of the poems, and to the use made by the poets of stylistic devices as structural elements.

In Jewish Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity, Laura Suzanne Lieber offers annotated translations of sixty-nine poems written between the 4th and 7th century C.E. in the Land of Israel, along with commentaries and introductions. The poems celebrate a range of occasions from the ritual year and the life-cycle: Passover, Shavuot (Pentacost), the Ninth of Av, Purim, the New Moon of Nisan, the conclusion of the Torah, weddings, and funerals. Written in the vernacular of the Jews of living in Palestine after the Christianization of the Roman Empire, these works offer insight into lived Jewish experience during a pivotal age. The volume contextualizes the individual works so that readers from a range of backgrounds can appreciate the formal, linguistic, exegetical, theological, and performative creativity of these works. "Lieber has produced reliable renderings, as well as learned and helpful annotations, and has consistently expressed herself in clear and elegant fashion....Her volume is an important, scientific study in its own right, as well as a useful reference tool (if read alongside the Sokoloff-Yahalom edition), and certainly deserves a wide readership." - Stefan C. Reif, St John's College, Cambridge, UK, in: Journal of Jewish Studies 70.2 (2019) "Scholars of Judaism in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages will certainly appreciate Lieber’s effort in offering all of this textual material to them in conveniently accessible form. Almost every student of Judaism in those eras, regardless of academic specialty, is likely to find something of interest and value in the poems that she has translated." - Mose J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University, Speculum 95/3 (2020)