Review of Rella Kushelevsky, Moses and the Angel of Death

For many years comparative thematics was the principal method of comparative literature until formalism and structuralism emerged as the key terms of avant-garde scholarship. Now, in an era when these very terms are relegated to the backyard of the academy by trendier directions, thematic analysis is enjoying a modest rejuvenation.1 Within this re-emerging paradigm Yoav Elstein and Avidov Lipsker have launched a very ambitious project known as "The Thematological Encylcopedia of Jewish Literature." They have outlined their methodology in two programmatic essays,2 and together and separately published several case studies.3 Yoav Elstein has also guest-edited volume 30 of Criticism and Interpretation (1994) which includes several thematological essays by diverse hands.