This volume comprises twenty-five studies presented by Egyptologists and Semitists at a workshop commemorating H.J. Polotsky, held in 2001 at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Subjects discussed include: Polotsky's life and work (E. Ullenforff); studies in Egyptian (O. Goldwasser, W. Schenkel, H. Satzinger); Polotsky's cotribution to Egyptian with comparison to Hebrew (A. Niccacci); Coptic (W.-P. Funk) and related problems of methodology (A. Shisha-Halevy); Semitic verbal morpohology (S. Izre'el); Akkadian (E. Cohen, N. Wasserman); Tigrinya (R. Voigt); Gurage (G. Goldenberg); Arabic (R. Talmon, J. Blau, O. Jastrow, R. Henkin, R. Saari); Hebrew (O. Rodrigue Schwarzwald, T. Zewi, D. Taube, T. Bar, M. Rauret-Domenech); and problems of syntax and usage (S. Hopkins, M. Erdal, P.I. Kirtchuk-Halevi).