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and a critique of, the reality of Italian Jewry -
the Zeitgeist and the community’s social and
spiritual problems. The reasons compelling
Sforno to write his commentary, and its goals,
led him to respond to contemporary reality.
In order to achieve the primarily didactic goal
of his composition, he alludes to this reality
as reflected in the verses of the Torah, which
he uses as a vehicle to transmit his hidden
messages/rebukes. Sforno attempts to bring the
content and style of the commentary close to
the world of his readers, so that his work would
be comprehensible to and accepted by his
audience and relevant to their life. Stylistically,
his commentary consists of veiled teachings,
in order to win the hearts of his readers and
attain his educational goals. Open and blunt
statements would have led to the rejection of
the commentary.
Dr. Moshe Rachimi is Dean of the Orot College
and lectures on Bible at that institution.

Ruth Bitan-Cohen discusses two liturgical
Hebrew poets from eighteenth-nineteenth-
century Algeria: R. Amram Amar (of Algiers)
and R. Nathan Gian (of Tlemçen).The two were
close friends and exchanged letters and poems.
However their friendship knew ups and downs.
Two liturgical poems reflect the tension between
them at a certain time: Amit batorah by R. Amram
Amar and Nora bei Amram by R. Nathan Gian. A n
in-depth reading of both poems provides the
reader with an encounter with the two levels
on which they were brilliantly composed: the
explicit level of Diaspora and redemption and

VI P e a m i m 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 2 )