Leopold Zunz and the Hebraists Gianfranco Miletto, Düsseldorf In 1818, Zunz published his first work, Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur. It is a short but richly textured study (comprising 50 pages in the original edition of the Maurersche Buchhandlung),1 which clearly lays out the method and aims of the investigation of Jewish literature. Yet the title is somewhat misleading: Zunz’s subject extends far beyond a study of rabbinical literature strictu sensu. In his programmatic essay, Zunz expounds on principles for a scientific-critical comprehensive survey of Jewish intellectual history. A year later, the Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft des Judentums would refer to this publication as a cornerstone of its intellectual charter, and today it still forms the girding for the field of Jewish Studies at German universities. Zunz himself sensed that the term “rabbinical” was too narrow, suggesting instead “Modern Hebrew” or simply “Jewish” as a more accurate descriptor.2 The Haskala had so successfully polemicized against the claims to exclusivity of rabbinic education and culture that Zunz was even apprehensive about the possible impending demise of rabbinical literature. But it proved possible to completely historicize the Talmud and other rabbinical writings, viewing them, apart from any and all religious-normative evaluation, as a component of Jewish literature as a whole. That literature would now be investigated as a scientific subject, historically and through the prism of the discipline of philology: But precisely because in the present period, we Jews, limiting the view solely to the Jews in Germany, are, with ever greater seriousness of intent, making use of German language and culture and, perhaps often without so wishing or even sensing, watch on as Modern Hebrew literature is sent to an early grave – science enters upon the stage, demanding a proper account from the now closed field. Now, when our view of the whole cannot be so easily perturbed by the appearance of an important new work, and where far greater subsidies stand at our disposal than were available to the scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Now, when a more amplified Culture allows us to antici- pate a more insightful and illuminating treatment of the subject, and Hebrew books 1 Leopold Zunz, Etwas über die rabbinische Litteratur: Nebst Nachrichten über ein altes bis jetzt ungedrucktes hebräisches Werk, Berlin, 1818, reprinted in: idem, Gesammelte Schriften von Dr. Zunz. Herausgegeben vom Curatorium der “Zunzstiftung”, vol. 1, Berlin 1875, (Re- print Hildesheim – New York 1976), pp. 1–31. 2 Zunz observed in a footnote: “That designation should only be used for writings whose author or content are rabbinical. And basically speaking, the title of rabbi, which polite man- ners bestow on one and all, should be granted less importance than the title of doctor. Why not Modern Hebrew or Jewish literature?”; Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1, p. 3. (emphasis in origi- nal). 50 leopold zunz and the hebraists are more readily available than they may perhaps be in 1919. It is now that we deem it a duty, beholden upon us, to develop our science on a grand scale.3 And a bit later in a footnote he stressed once again: “We have no fears about being misunderstood. Here we seek to present the entire literature of the Jews, in its greatest compass, as an object of research – without any concern whether its total content should or can serve as the norm for our own judgment.”4 So it is not surprising that this programmatic essay by Zunz encountered rejection and critique by the “men with the beards”, as Samuel Meyer Ehren- berg wryly termed the conservative representatives of rabbinical Orthodoxy in a letter to Zunz, while the work was welcomed by progressive circles whose thinking was akin to that of Zunz.5 Zunz recognized that his project was not totally new and unprecedented. He viewed the Christian Hebraists of the Reformation as his precursors: With the Reformation, which necessarily resulted in a flowering of classical education, a spirited study of the books of the Bible was initiated. This was coupled with what we may term a zealous curiosity to pore over and search through the Orient. Therefore one embarked with such fervor for a century on the study of rabbinical wisdom – a fervor that suddenly dissipated and vanished, perhaps forever, when patriotic, richer and more amicable products came to occupy hearts and minds.6 Among the various reasons which led to the neglect of rabbinical or Jewish literature, Zunz singled out in particular the insufficient knowledge of the clas- sical and Hebrew languages.7 Yet that was not the case in the 16th and 17th century, when the confluence of humanistic education and the Reformation created the soil upon which the plant of Christian Hebrew Studies would ger- minate and grow. The reform efforts by Luther and Andreas Bodenstein, better known as Karlstadt, which regarded a solid education in Hebrew and Greek as indispensable in order to return to the original text of the Old and New Testa- 3 Ibid., p. 4 (emphasis in original). See also Christoph Schulte, Die jüdische Aufklärung, Munich 2002, p. 117. 4 Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1, p. 5 (emphasis in original). See also Schulte, Die jüdi- sche Aufklärung, p. 115. 5 Letter S.M.Ehrenberg to Zunz, 9 February 1832, published in: Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), Leopold and Adelheid Zunz. An Account in Letters 1815–1885, London 1958, p. 63. Further reports by Ehrenberg on positive and negative assessments of Zunz’s work are contained in letters of 22 September 1820 (p. 18), 3 November 1820 (p. 20) and 21 October 1823 (p. 44). 6 Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1, p. 4. 7 Ibid., pp. 24–25. On the importance of classical education in Zunz’s view and the influence which the reform of classical studies by Friedrich August Wolf (1757–1824) and his pupil August Boeckh (1785–1867) exerted on Zunz, see Giuseppe Veltri, “Altertumswissenschaft und Wissenschaft des Judentums: Leopold Zunz und seine Lehrer F.A.Wolf und A.Böckh”, in: Reinhard Markner and Giuseppe Veltri (eds.), Friedrich August Wolf: Studien, Dokumente, Bibliographie, Stuttgart 1999, pp. 32–47. 51 gianfranco miletto ment, built on the humanistic ideal of trilingual erudition (Latin, Greek and Hebrew). Springing from the kernel of Biblical exegesis, interest gradually igni- ted in exploring rabbinical and Jewish literature more broadly. In his first pro- grammatic treatise, Zunz refers specifically to the pioneering work done by the path-breaking Protestant theologians in research on Jewish literature in that fortunate era. His bibliographical quotations are based principally on studies by Giulio Bartolocci (1613–1687),8 along with the supplementary volume written by Carlo Giuseppe Imbonati after Bartolocci’s death,9 the Bibliotheca Hebraea (4 vols., Hamburg/Leipzig 1715–1733) of Johann Christoph Wolf (1683–1739) and works by the Italian Orientalist Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi (1742–1831).10 Among the Christian Hebraists Zunz mentions in his first work are Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522), Guillaume Postel (1510–1581), Johann Buxtorf the Elder (1564–1629), Andreas Sennert (1606–1689), Johann Christoph Wagenseil (1633–1705), and Jacopo Gaffarelli a.k.a. Jacques Gaffarel (?1601–1681), the librarian of Cardinal Richelieu. Strik- ing among these luminaries is the name of Andreas Sennert, today almost for- gotten.11 8 Bibliotheca magna rabbinica de scriptoribus, & scriptis Hebraicis, ordine alphabetico Hebraice, & Latine digestis, Romae, ex typographia Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1675–1693. 9 Bibliotheca Latino-Hebraica sive de scriptoribus Latinis, qui ex diversis nationibus contra Iudaeos, vel de re Hebraica vtcumque scripsere: [...] Cum quadruplici indice, [...] Loco coro- nidis adventus Messiae a Iudaeorum blasphemiis, ac haereticorum calumniis vindicatus, [...] Ex Hebraico, Graeco, latinoque codice, auctoritatibus depromptis. [...] Auctore et vindice D. Carolo Ioseph Imbonato Mediolanensi [...] Praemittitur chronotaxis totius Sac. Scripturae, qua statuitur natale Christi anno ab orbe condito 4000, Romae, ex typographia Sacrae Congreg. de Propag. Fide, 1694. 10 Zunz quotes the following from among de Rossi’s voluminous works: Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti, 4 vols., Parma 1784–1788, with a supplementary volume Scholia Critica In V.T. Libros Seu Supplementa Ad Varias Sacri Textus Lectiones, Parma 1798, and Mss. Codices hebraici biblioth. I.B.De-Rossi Ling. Orient. prof. accurate ab eodem descripti et illustrati. Accedit appendix qua continentur Mss. Codices reliqui al. linguarum, 3 vols., Parma 1803–1804. De Rossi’s valuable collection of Hebrew and Oriental manuscripts and books (just the He- brew section numbers 1,432 mss. and 1,442 published works) was bought in 1816 for the sum of 100,000 francs by the Duchess Marie Luise (Parma). It was subsequently donated to the municipal library there where it is still housed. Zunz was not able to consult the library in Parma until 1863, reporting on this in his essay “Die hebräischen Handschriften in Italien. Ein Mahnruf des Rechts und der Wissenschaft”, Berlin 1864, reprinted in: Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 3, pp. 1–13. 11 On Andreas Sennert, see Walter Friedensburg, Geschichte der Universität Wittenberg, Halle 1917, pp. 478–480; Heinz Kathe, Die Wittenberger philosophische Fakultät 1502–1817 (Mit- teldeutsche Forschungen 117), Cologne – Weimar – Vienna 2002, pp. 194–196; 245; Gianfranco Miletto and Giuseppe Veltri, “Die Hebraistik in Wittenberg (1502–1813): von der ‘lingua sacra’ zur Semitistik”, in: Henoch 25/1 (2003), pp. 93–111, here 106–107. 52 leopold zunz and the hebraists Zunz appears to have been directly aware of at least one treatise authored by the Wittenberg Orientalist, who was a prolific scholar and had a significant impact on the development of the further course of Hebrew and Oriental studies at the University of Wittenberg during his almost 50 years on the faculty there.