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Prayer book for the new reform movement, incorporating in one work changes already made in practice. There is a German title page which'states that it is the service for Sabbath and festivals for the New Temple, a dedication in that language to Israel Jacobson, a wealthy philanthropist and supporter of reformer, a preface by Fraenkel and Bresselau, a table of contents and then the text. The text is bilingual, Hebrew and German, the former at the top of the page, the latter below. There are also pages entirely in German. The illustrated title is lacking trom this copy , which is in otherwise excellent condition.
The Hamburg Reform temple was dedicated in 1818, and in 1819 this prayer book was published to accord with the liturgical ritual of the new congregation. It abbreviates the Hebrew service by omitting prayers deemed unimportant by the compilers, modifies prayers to eliminate mention of a personal Messiah for a Messianic era, omits and modifies some but not all prayers referring to the ingathering of all Jews to Erez Israel. Seder ha-Avodah aroused considerable opposition and passion, being considered by many as pure heresy and resulted in polemics trom both sides. Seder ha-Avodah is an important work documenting the change trom traditional services to those of Reform.
Isaac Seckel Fraenkel, (1765-1835) was a banker. Self-educated. He acquired extensive knowledge of religious and secular subjects and of ancient and modern languages. In 1798 he moved to Hamburg where he engaged in banking and became one of the community leaders, particularly in its Reform congregation. His main literary project was the translation of the Apocrypha into Hebrew, entitled Ketuvim Aharonim. This work has frequently been reprinted since its first appearance in Leipzig (1830), its most recent edition appearing in Jerusalem in 1966. A bibliophile edition of the Books of the Maccabees, Sefer ha-Hashmona'im, appeared in Fraenkel's translation in 1964.
Meyer Israel Bresselau, (d. 1839), a leader of the Reform movement. was the state notary for the Jews of Hamburg. In answer to EUeh Divrei ha-Berit (Altona, 1819), a pamphlet which collated the views of the greatest Orthodox rabbis of Western Europe against Reform Judaism and its innovations, he published anonymously his polemic work Herev Nokemet Nekam-Berit (Dessau, 1819). It is a rhymed work written in a satirical biblical style, is remarkable in its witty take-off on the Orthodox rabbis who opposed the reforms in the Hamburg Reform synagogue (temple). It ranks among the best Hebrew polemic literature written at the time of the Haskalah. To counteract Bresselau's polemic work M. L. Reinitz published Lahat ha-Herev ha-Mithappekhet (1820).
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