Detailed
Description |
|
First part of Naphtali Herz Wessely’s Divrei Shalom ve-Emet. This important work of haskalah literature was published in four parts between 1782 and 1785; it is rare to find the first part of Divrei Shalom ve-Emet in its original state. The title page, which is undated and lacks the place of printing, states it is for the Kahal Adat Yisrael, who dwell in the lands of the domain of Joseph II. The text is comprised of eight chapters in a single column in rabbinic type, excepting headers and initial words. The fourth chapter is bound out of place at the end of the volume. Divrei Shalom ve-Emet is a series of letters written in support of the edict of Tolerance by Emperor Joseph II of Austria. This, the first letter, calls on the Jewish community of Austria to comply willingly with the Edict of Tolerance. It advocates modernizing Jewish education, the study of secular subjects by Jews, and opening schools for Jewish children in which German would be taught. This letter provoked considerable protest from traditional elements in the Jewish community, among them from R. Ezekiel Landau (Noda bi-Yehudah, 1713–1793).
Naphtali Herz Wessely (1725–1805) was an important member of the German Haskalah. He was an associate of Moses Mendelssohn and contributed a commentary on Leviticus (Berlin, 1782) to the Biur. He was a prolific writer. Among Wessely’s most important works Shirei Tiferet (1789–1802), an epic poem on the Exodus from Egypt It is one of the major literary work of the German Haskalah.
|
