Troublesome Topic: The Two Key Elements of Hebrew Poetry

I absolutely love the poetry of Dr. Suess. Though an English professor might not put his work in the same category as the big-name poets of history, I think no one mastered rhyme and rhythm better than Theodore Geisel, the author of the Dr. Suess books. While Americans consider rhyme and rhythm to be key elements of good poetry, the Hebrews valued something else.

 When we read Hebrew poetry, we need to take off our rhyme and rhythm cap and put on a different cap, one that allows us to enjoy Hebrew poetry for what it is. In my opinion, there were two key elements of Jewish poetry:

-Parallelism

-Balance

Each one of these is covered in its own topical lesson.