Dr. Hoffman, your recommendations look very helpful.
I have clearly not spent my life devoted to Hebrew. It seems crazy for me to
begin the process. I have spent my life in devotion to structure and
framework and I have managed like David and others to get some experience of
life. The 400 year old translations that are used in my tradition, beautiful
though they are, make assumptions in their formulations of piety and miss
the spare forms of the poetry.