DOCSLIB.ORG

Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’S Letters Exchange

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’S Letters Exchange European Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (2017) 115–129 brill.com/ejjs Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’s Letters Exchange Chiara Adorisio Abstract The correspondence of the Italian Hebraist Samuel David Luzzatto (1800–1865) and the German-Jewish Orientalist Salomon Munk (1803–1867) sheds light on the trans- European dimension of the movement known as the Science of Judaism. This arti- cle is based on the reconstruction of the friendship between Luzzatto and Munk as reflected in Luzzatto’s letters to Munk in Paris. Their relationship was personal as well as intellectual: Luzzatto sent his son Philoxène, a promising Orientalist, to study under Munk’s supervision. Together with Munk’s letter to Philoxène, these letters provide us with details central to an understanding of the relationship between the two scholars. Although differing in their attitude toward Jewish faith and philosophy, Munk and Luzzatto shared a common interest in Hebrew and Oriental languages. Through their philological and linguistic studies, they challenged the Orientalistic attitude prevalent among European scholars and historians of philosophy in the first half of the nine- teenth century. Keywords Samuel David Luzzatto – Salomon Munk – Jewish philosophy – Wissenschaft des Judentums – Jewish studies – Orientalism – Judeo-Arabic literature and philosophy Samuel David Luzzatto (1800–1865), Italian Hebraist and professor at the Rabbinic College of Padua, and Salomon Munk (1803–1867), German-Jewish Orientalist and professor of Semitic languages and literature at the Collège de France in Paris, are two outstanding figures of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in Europe. They contributed to the main goal of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, the development of Jewish studies as an academic discipline in European © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi �0.��63/�87�47�X-��34��Downloaded99 from Brill.com09/24/2021 09:28:47PM via free access 116 Adorisio universities, through their pioneering philological and historical works on Hebrew literature and language (Luzzatto) and on Islamic and Judeo-Arabic philosophy and literature (Munk). They both were accomplished scholars of Oriental languages and of Hebrew grammar and history. Munk, as the author of a geographical, historical and archaeological description of Palestine,1 was considered by his contemporaries, among them Adolph Jellinek in his Eulogy for Salomon Munk,2 to be one of the most important Orientalists of his epoch. Munk and Luzzatto were both in contact with representative figures of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, founded in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Munk began his studies with Leopold Zunz and was a student of Abraham Geiger and Eduard Gans in Berlin before he emi- grated to Paris in 1928; Samuel David Luzzatto held lively scholarly exchanges with Moritz Steinschneider, Leopold Zunz, Abraham Geiger, and others. They remained orthodox Jews throughout their lives—a fact which sets them apart from other representatives of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, such as Eduard Gans and Heinrich Heine, who abandoned Jewish orthodoxy or converted to Christianity. Although they were very dissimilar in personality and philo- sophical position, Munk and Luzzatto exchanged several ideas on the scien- tific and objective method of the Science of Judaism, shared their knowledge of Hebrew grammar and Hebrew literature, and warned, through their works, against the threat represented by pantheism both in Jewish mystical currents and in philosophy. Munk and Luzzatto were authors who tried to adapt the ideas of the German-Jewish Wissenschaft des Judentums to two very different contexts: the French academic world, and the world of Italian Hebraism, during the first half of the nineteenth century. The reconstruction of their scholarly dialogue will also allow us to reflect on Munk and Luzzatto’s position on the relationship between Judaism, rationalism and the scientific method. And though Munk and Luzzatto are much more known as historical scholars and philologists, and less as philosophers and Orientalists, still, in their historical and philologi- cal works, one finds numerous philosophical reflections influenced both by Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers, testifying to their profound interest in that subject. The present article is just such an examination of Munk and Luzzatto’s relationship—a relationship that exemplifies the trans-European dimension 1 Salomon Munk, Palestine: Description géographique, historique et archéologique (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1845). 2 Adolph Jellinek, Gedächtnisrede auf den verewigten Herrn Salomon Munk (Vienna: Herzfeld & Bauer, 1867). European Journal of JewishDownloaded Studies from 11 Brill.com09/24/2021 (2017) 115–129 09:28:47PM via free access Jewish Philosophy, Science Of Judaism And Philology 117 of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, and the influence that the German-Jewish scholars had on the development of nineteenth-century Orientalism through- out the continent. My examination is mainly based on the reconstruction of Luzzatto’s and Munk’s friendship through Luzzatto’s correspondence. Both his published and unpublished letters, as well as the letter that Munk wrote to Luzzatto’s son, Philoxène (who was for a brief period of time Munk’s student in Paris), will provide us with details about their relationship. All these letters are preserved in the Samuel David Luzzatto archive of the Centro Bibliografico dell’Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane in Rome. 1 The Relationship between the Study of Judaism and the Study of Language in Munk and Luzzatto The correspondence between Luzzatto and Munk began around March 1850, when Salomon Munk wrote to Samuel David’s son, Philoxène Luzzatto, a promising student of Oriental languages, saying that he would like to read an example of the young scholar’s work on Assyrian.3 After this letter, Philoxène decided to move to Paris in order to continue his studies under Munk’s guid- ance, and thus became a sort of intermediary between his father and Munk. Writing to Munk about his son, Luzzatto also discusses several questions regarding his own work: I have waited far too long in writing to you and in praising your admirable “Notice” on our ancient grammarians, always awaiting the opportunity to send you my letter with my Philoxène. I am happy to have, in Paris, a man worthy of being a father to my son. His feelings of admiration and sym- pathy toward you equal my own . I thank God that my son may reach France after the fall from power of the pompous words and charlatanism of the tribune, which are diametrically opposed to the motto of Judaism, “speak little and do much.”4 3 At that time, Philoxène Luzzatto had already written his Le sanscritisme de la langue assyri- enne (Padua: A. Bianchi, 1849), and was thinking about publishing a study on Assyrian Inscriptions: Etudes sur les inscriptions assyriennes de Persépolis, Hamadan, Van et Khorsabad (Padua: A. Bianchi, 1850). 4 “J’ai trop long-temps tardé à vous écrire et à vous faire l’éloge de votre admirable ‘Notice’ sur nos anciens Grammairiens, attendant toujours le moment de pouvoir vous envoyer ma lettre par mon Philoxène. Je suis heureux d’avoir à Paris un homme digne d’être père à mon fils. Ses sentiments d’admiration et de sympathie envers vous égalent les miens. Je remercie Dieu European Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (2017) 115–129Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 09:28:47PM via free access 118 Adorisio In his letters (to his son, to Munk and to other scholars such as Albert Cohn), Luzzatto expressed great interest in the work of his German-Jewish émigré colleague, who around 1850 was already known for his French translation of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. At that time, Munk had already pub- lished seminal studies on Judeo-Arabic texts, a study on the Jewish philoso- pher Salomon Ibn Gabirol and a survey of the history of Jewish philosophy titled Philosophy and Philosophical Authors of the Jews: A Historical Sketch with Explanatory Notes, in which he sketched a history of Jewish philosophy up to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, and claimed that there was a fundamental conflict between philosophy and Judaism. This claim notwith- standing, the idea of the fundamental difficulty of reconciling Judaism and philosophy took different paths in the thought of the two authors, whose let- ters show their awareness of the differences in their positions. In 1850, Munk invited Luzzatto to join him in Paris and to accept a position at the French Academy of Inscriptions and Literature. Luzzatto politely turned down Munk’s offer and explained his decision in a letter to his son in Paris: Although Munk’s idea consoled me, I have already told you that I would prefer not to leave Italy. But I am happy that that man, whom I consider the best and most learned of the Israelites of France, holds me worthy of such an eminent position, which, however, is not for me; it would impede my studies and distract me with worries alien to my vocation.5 In his autobiography, Luzzatto himself explains what that vocation is. He tells us, for example, that when he was eight years old, a young teacher awakened in him a love for the search for truth, for progress, and for rigorous enquiry. Then, under the influence of the Catholic author Francesco Soave,6 in particular, via Soave’s book Istituzioni di Logica, Metafisica ed Etica, Luzzatto became inter- ested in modern philosophers such as Montesquieu, Locke, and Condillac. Luzzatto never abandoned the study of Jewish sources, but considered que mon fils arrive en France après la chûte du pouvoir des paroles pompeuses, et du char- latanisme de la tribune, diamétralement opposé à la devise du Judaïsme, ‘emor me’at va’aseh harbeh.’ ” From a letter to Salomon Munk in Paris, Padua, Purim 1852, in Epistolario italiano, francese, latino, di Samuel David Luzzatto da Trieste; pubblicato da’ suoi figli, ed.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 'Like Iron to a Magnet': Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence David Sclar Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/380 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence By David Sclar A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 David Sclar All Rights Reserved This Manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Prof. Jane S. Gerber _______________ ____________________________________ Date Chair of the Examining Committee Prof. Helena Rosenblatt _______________ ____________________________________ Date Executive Officer Prof. Francesca Bregoli _______________________________________ Prof. Elisheva Carlebach ________________________________________ Prof. Robert Seltzer ________________________________________ Prof. David Sorkin ________________________________________ Supervisory Committee iii Abstract “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence by David Sclar Advisor: Prof. Jane S. Gerber This dissertation is a biographical study of Moses Hayim Luzzatto (1707–1746 or 1747). It presents the social and religious context in which Luzzatto was variously celebrated as the leader of a kabbalistic-messianic confraternity in Padua, condemned as a deviant threat by rabbis in Venice and central and eastern Europe, and accepted by the Portuguese Jewish community after relocating to Amsterdam.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Encyclopedia
    Jewish Encyclopedia The History, Religion, Literature, And Customs Of The Jewish People From The Earliest Times To The Present Day Volume XII TALMUD – ZWEIFEL New York and London FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY MDCCCCVI ZIONISM: Movement looking toward the segregation of the Jewish people upon a national basis and in a particular home of its own: specifically, the modern form of the movement that seeks for the Jews “a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine,” as initiated by Theodor Herzl in 1896, and since then dominating Jewish history. It seems that the designation, to distinguish the movement from the activity of the Chovevei Zion, was first used by Matthias Acher (Birnbaum) in his paper “Selbstemancipation,” 1886 (see “Ost und West,” 1902, p. 576: Ahad ha – ‘Am, “Al Parashat Derakim,” p. 93, Berlin, 1903). Biblical Basis The idea of a return of the Jews to Palestine has its roots in many passages of Holy Writ. It is an integral part of the doctrine that deals with the Messianic time, as is seen in the constantly recurring expression, “shub shebut” or heshib shebut,” used both of Israel and of Judah (Jer. xxx, 7,1; Ezek. Xxxix. 24; Lam. Ii. 14; Hos. Vi. 11; Joel iv. 1 et al.). The Dispersion was deemed merely temporal: ‘The days come … that … I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof … and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land” (Amos ix.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Beginning the Conversation
    NOTES 1 Beginning the Conversation 1. Jacob Katz, Exclusiveness and Tolerance: Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times (New York: Schocken, 1969). 2. John Micklethwait, “In God’s Name: A Special Report on Religion and Public Life,” The Economist, London November 3–9, 2007. 3. Mark Lila, “Earthly Powers,” NYT, April 2, 2006. 4. When we mention the clash of civilizations, we think of either the Spengler battle, or a more benign interplay between cultures in individual lives. For the Spengler battle, see Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996). For a more benign interplay in individual lives, see Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1999). 5. Micklethwait, “In God’s Name.” 6. Robert Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005). “Interview with Robert Wuthnow” Religion and Ethics Newsweekly April 26, 2002. Episode no. 534 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week534/ rwuthnow.html 7. Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, 291. 8. Eric Sharpe, “Dialogue,” in Mircea Eliade and Charles J. Adams, The Encyclopedia of Religion, first edition, volume 4 (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 345–8. 9. Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald and John Borelli, Interfaith Dialogue: A Catholic View (London: SPCK, 2006). 10. Lily Edelman, Face to Face: A Primer in Dialogue (Washington, DC: B’nai B’rith, Adult Jewish Education, 1967). 11. Ben Zion Bokser, Judaism and the Christian Predicament (New York: Knopf, 1967), 5, 11. 12. Ibid., 375.
    [Show full text]
  • S. D. Luzzatto's Program for Restoring Jewish Leadership in Hebrew Studies
    S. D. Luzzatto’s Program for Restoring Jewish Leadership in Hebrew Studies Marco Di Giulio Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 105, Number 3, Summer 2015, pp. 340-366 (Article) Published by University of Pennsylvania Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2015.0018 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/589329 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] T HE J EWISH Q UARTERLY R EVIEW, Vol. 105, No. 3 (Summer 2015) 340–366 S. D. Luzzatto’s Program for Restoring Jewish Leadership in Hebrew Studies MARCO DI GIULIO IN 1832, SAMUEL D AVID L UZZATTO (1800–1865) set out to write a new grammar of Hebrew; thirty-seven years would pass before its final fascicle appeared in print. In the meantime, his introduction to this long- awaited publication came out separately in 1836 as Prolegomeni ad una grammatica ragionata della lingua ebraica (Padua; henceforth Prolegomeni), which Luzzatto would come to think of as the pie`ce de re´sistance of his entire scholarly production.1 Through Prolegomeni, Luzzatto sought to marginalize the role of Arabic—whose importance, he maintained, had been overestimated by the ‘‘father’’ of modern Semitic philology, Albert Schultens (1686–1750)—in his approach to illustrating the genius of Hebrew.2 Searching for the language that would best explicate the work- ings of Hebrew, Luzzatto turned to Aramaic, which, according to one I wish to thank Annette Aronowicz and Maria D. Mitchell for their careful reading of earlier versions of this essay, as well as four anonymous reviewers of Jewish Quarterly Review for their engaged responses.
    [Show full text]
  • (303) 735-4768 292 UCB Fax: (303) 735-2080 Boulder, CO 80309 University Club 216
    ELIAS SACKS University of Colorado Boulder [email protected] Department of Religious Studies phone: (303) 735-4768 292 UCB fax: (303) 735-2080 Boulder, CO 80309 University Club 216 EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION 2020 – present Director, University of Colorado Boulder, Program in Jewish Studies 2018 – present Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Religious Studies and Program in Jewish Studies 2012 – 2018 Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Religious Studies and Program in Jewish Studies § Associate Chair, Department of Religious Studies (2017 – 2019) § Associate Director, Program in Jewish Studies (2013 – 2017) 2007 – 2012 Ph.D., Princeton University, Department of Religion Field: Religion, Ethics, and Politics (M.A., 2010; Ph.D., 2012) 2006 – 2007 M.A., Columbia University, Department of Religion 2005 – 2006 Visiting Graduate Student, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rothberg School 1999 – 2003 A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard University, Committee on the Study of Religion PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Books Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017) § 2017 Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award, University of Colorado Boulder Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters “Exegesis and Politics Between East and West: Nachman Krochmal, Moses Mendelssohn, and Modern Jewish Thought,” Harvard Theological Review (forthcoming) “Virtue Between Hebrew and German: The Case of Moses Mendelssohn” (with Grit Schorch), in Jewish Virtue Ethics, eds. Geoffrey Claussen, Alex Green, and Alan Mittleman (SUNY Press, forthcoming) “Poetry, Music, and the Limits of Harmony: Mendelssohn’s Aesthetic Critique of Christianity,” in Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin, eds.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to JUDAISM WEEK 3 GOD IS ONE JEWISH VIEWS of GOD  Adonai Echad 
    Temple Sinai, S. Burlington, VT. Rabbi David Edleson Introduction to JUDAISM WEEK 3 GOD IS ONE JEWISH VIEWS OF GOD Adonai Echad Do you have to believe in God to be Jewish? Jews and God by the Numbers Pew 2013 Jews and God by the Numbers Pew 2018 . Shabbat Stalwarts – regular participation in prayer and other religious practices 21% . God and Country Believers- express their religion through political and social conservatism 8% . Diversely Devout- follow the Bible but also believe in things like animism and reincarnation. 5% . Relaxed Religious- believe in God and pray but don’t engage in many traditional practices 14% . Spiritually Awake – hold some New Age beliefs 8% . Religious Resisters – believe in a higher power but have negative views of organized religion 17% . Solidly Secular- don’t believe in God and do not self-define as religious 28% Jews and God by the Numbers Pew 2018 45 percent of American Jews are listed in the two categories for the least religious: “religion resisters,” who believe in a higher power but have negative views of organized religion, or “solidly secular,” those who don’t believe in God and do not self-define as religious. The breakdown is 28 percent as “solidly secular” and 17 percent as “religion resisters.” “Jewish Americans are the only religious group with substantial contingents at each end of the typology,” the study says. Maimonides’13 Articles of Faith Principle 1 I believe with perfect faith that: God exists; God is perfect in every way, eternal, and the cause of all that exists. All other beings depend upon God for their existence.
    [Show full text]
  • IE 10 2013 Layout 1
    + oltreconfine HATIKWA Unione Giovani Ebrei d’Italia Italia Ebraica IL MIO MAROCCO voci dalle Comunità n. 10/2013 A PAG. 12 Italia Ebraica – attualità e cultura dalle Comunità ebraiche italiane ‐ registrazione Tribunale di Roma 220/2009 | [email protected] – www.italiaebraica.net | supplemento a Pagine Ebraiche ‐ n. 10 ‐ 2013 reg. Tribunale di Roma 218/2009 ISSN 2037‐1543 (direttore responsabile: Guido Vitale) ROMA EBRAICA FIRENZE - A SCUOLA DI FUTURO ROMA / FERRARA L'inganno dell'oro I due musei Molti gli appuntamen‐ ti in programma in oc‐ verso il via casione del 70esimo Nuove opportunità per raccon- anniversario della de‐ tare la storia e la memoria degli portazione del 16 ot‐ ebrei italiani. A Ferrara, dove tobre. Tra le novità la sorgerà il Museo dell'Ebraismo presentazione, su impulso dell'Aned e con nu‐ Italiano e della Shoah (nell'im- merose testimonianze inedite, del documen‐ magine), l'annuncio dell'attiva- tario di produzione statunitense Oro Macht zione della procedura di appalto Frei al Teatro Vittoria. Alla stazione Tiburtina del primo stralcio esecutivo che il ricollocamento della lapide che ricorda la deportazione degli ebrei romani. NAPOLI EBRAICA Giornata 2013, cresce l'attesa Che rapporto c’è tra ebrai‐ smo e natura? Quali sono le interesserà il corpo delle vecchie indicazioni e i suggerimenti celle di detenzione dove saranno della tradizione ebraica per ospitate le sale per le mostre instaurare un rapporto sano temporanee, l'area didattica per con il mondo circostante? Sono le domande i bambini, gli uffici, la biblioteca. che vertono attorno alla 14esima edizione del‐ A Roma, il termine ultimo per la la Giornata europea della Cultura ebraica, de‐ presentazione di una candida- dicata al tema “Ebraismo e Natura”.
    [Show full text]
  • ELIAS SACKS University of Colorado Boulder [email protected] Department of Religious Studies Phone: (303) 735-4768 292 UC
    ELIAS SACKS University of Colorado Boulder [email protected] Department of Religious Studies phone: (303) 735-4768 292 UCB fax: (303) 735-2080 Boulder, CO 80309 Humanities 286 EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION 2018 – present Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Religious Studies and Program in Jewish Studies 2012 – 2018 Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Religious Studies and Program in Jewish Studies § Associate Chair, Department of Religious Studies (2017 – present) § Associate Faculty Director, Program in Jewish Studies (2013 – 2017) 2007 – 2012 Ph.D., Princeton University, Department of Religion Field: Religion, Ethics, and Politics (M.A., 2010; Ph.D., 2012) 2006 – 2007 M.A., Columbia University, Department of Religion 2005 – 2006 Visiting Graduate Student, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rothberg School 1999 – 2003 A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard University, Committee on the Study of Religion PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Books Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017) § 2017 Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award, University of Colorado Boulder Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters “Poetry, Music, and the Limits of Harmony: Mendelssohn’s Aesthetic Critique of Christianity,” in Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin, eds. Nancy Sinkoff and Rebecca Cypess, Eastman Studies in Music (University of Rochester Press, 2018), 122-146 “Worlds to Come Between
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Representations of Italy in the First Hebrew Shakespeare Translations
    1 Representations of Italy in the First Hebrew Shakespeare Translations Lily Kahn, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL Introduction The first Hebrew translations of complete Shakespeare plays appeared in Central and Eastern Europe in the final quarter of the nineteenth century, although Jewish authors had expressed admiration for the renowned English playwright as far back as the first few decades of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) in the late 1700s and early 1800s (see Almagor 1975 and Toury 2012: 145-7, 171-2 for details). This small group of late nineteenth-century translations was produced by adherents of the Haskalah and comprised part of a singular drive to establish a modern European-style literature in Hebrew and imbued with Jewish national consciousness (see Patterson 1964, 1988; Abramson and Parfitt 1985; and Pelli 2006 for discussion of the development of this literature). The authors’ selection of Hebrew as the vehicle of this new literary enterprise was a highly conscious and ideologically motivated decision, given that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the language was almost solely a written rather than a spoken medium, just on the cusp of its large-scale revernacularization in Palestine at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (see Harshav 1993: 81- 180 and Sáenz-Badillos 1993: 267-72 for details of the revernacularization project). As such, the translated plays were intended primarily for private reading rather than performance; indeed, there was no established Hebrew-language theatre at the time, with the first organized attempts at such an initiative emerging only in 1909 (Zer-Zion 2010).
    [Show full text]
  • Judaism and the Ethics of War
    Volume 87 Number 858 June 2005 Judaism and the ethics of war Norman Solomon* Norman Solomon served as rabbi to Orthodox congregations in Britain, and since 1983 has been engaged in interfaith relations and in academic work, most recently at the University of Oxford. He has published several books on Judaism. Abstract The article surveys Jewish sources relating to the justification and conduct of war, from the Bible and rabbinic interpretation to recent times, including special problems of the State of Israel. It concludes with the suggestion that there is convergence between contemporary Jewish teaching, modern human rights doctrine and international law. : : : : : : : The sources and how to read them Judaism, like Christianity, has deep roots in the Hebrew scriptures (“Old Testament”), but it interprets those scriptures along lines classically formulated by the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud, completed shortly before the rise of Islam. The Talmud is a reference point rather than a definitive statement; Judaism has continued to develop right up to the present day. To get some idea of how Judaism handles the ethics of war, we will review a selection of sources from the earliest scriptures to rabbinic discussion in contemporary Israel, thus over a period of three thousand years. The starting point for rabbinic thinking about war is the biblical legisla- tion set out in Deuteronomy 20. In form this is a military oration, concerned with jus in bello rather than jus ad bellum; it regulates conduct in war, but does not specify conditions under which it is appropriate to engage in war. It distin- guishes between (a) the war directly mandated by God against the Canaanites * For a fuller examination of this subject with bibliography see Norman Solomon, “Th e ethics of war in the Jewish tradition”, in Th e Ethics of War, Rochard Sorabji, David Robin et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy and Kabbalah. Elia Benamozegh (1823–1900), a Progressive/Traditional Thinker
    religions Article Philosophy and Kabbalah. Elia Benamozegh (1823–1900), a Progressive/Traditional Thinker Alessandro Guetta Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, 75007 Paris, France; [email protected] Abstract: Elia Benamozegh (born—1823 in Livorno and died—1900 in Livorno)—philosopher, biblical exegete, teacher at the Rabbinical College—was an original and fruitful thinker. At a time when the Jewish kabbalah, or esoteric tradition, was considered by the protagonists of Jewish studies as the result of an era of intellectual and religious decadence, Benamozegh indicated it to be the authentic theology of Judaism. In numerous works of varying nature, in Italian, French and Hebrew, the kabbalah is studied by comparing it with the thought of Spinoza and with German idealism (Hegel in particular), and, at a later stage, also with positivism and evolutionism. Benamozegh formulated a pluralistic religious philosophy open to progress by constantly referring to the first phase of Vico’s historicist philosophy and above all to the work of Vincenzo Gioberti. We can read this philosophy as an original and consistent response to the challenges of Modern, secularized thought. Keywords: Judaism; philosophy; kabbalah 1. Elia Benamozegh, His Life and Cultural Context Elia Benamozegh (born—1823 in Livorno and died—1900 in Livorno) is probably the Citation: Guetta, Alessandro. 2021. last representative of the long Italian Jewish philosophical tradition of rabbinic inspiration, Philosophy and Kabbalah. Elia and also one of the rare modern Jewish philosophers of religion that doesn’t stem from the Benamozegh (1823–1900), a Progressive/Traditional Thinker. German or Polish–Lithuanian area. The son of Moroccan parents, he was trained in Jewish Religions 12: 625.
    [Show full text]
  • ETD Template
    JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY ON THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND ITS JEWRY FROM THE LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY TO THE EARLY DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by I.IZZET BAHAR B. Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 1974 M. Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Bosphorus University, Istanbul, 1977 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. in Religious Studies University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by I. IZZET BAHAR It was defended on March 21, 2006 and approved by Alex Orbach, PhD, Associate Professor Adam Shear, PhD, Assistant Professor Snjazana Buzov, PhD, Lecturer Alex Orbach, PhD, Associate Professor Dissertation Director ii JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY ON THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND ITS JEWRY FROM THE LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY TO THE EARLY DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY I. Izzet Bahar, M.A. University of Pittsburgh, 2006 The thesis analyzes how Jewish historians presented the Ottoman Empire and its Jewish subjects during the long time span between the end of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. In the first part of the thesis, the key characteristics of the Jewish attitude towards history and history writing are analyzed. Throughout the ages of pre-1820, Jews are observed to be consciously lukewarm towards history. The sealing of the Bible and the emergence of an apocalyptic/messianic world view, which are both considered to have taken place around the last centuries of B.C.E., are illustrated as two major causes behind the emergence of this particular Jewish attitude towards history.
    [Show full text]