Hebrew translation of Racine’s famous drama Esther by Solomon Judah Leib Rapoport (Rappaport, Shir). The title page states that it is the miracle of the deliverance of Israel by Mordecai and Esther in verse and dialogue, divided into four parts by ש . . . י . . . Solomon Judah Leib Rapoport of Lemberg. There is as long preface from Rapoport (3-20) in rabbinic type, a half-title page, a list of characters, and the drama (23-84) in square vocalized Hebrew. She’erit Yehudah first appeared in the Hebrew literary journal Bikkurei ha-Ittim.

Jean Racine (1639–1699) was a French tragic dramatist whose reputation rests on nine tragedies in Alexandrine verse written between 1667 and 1691. There is no record of his having any personal knowledge of Jews, but the heroine's speech in Esther (1689) makes his sympathy for them clear enough. A reference in the preface to Esther to the modern celebration of Purim also shows an awareness of Jewish customs.

Solomon Judah Leib Rapoport (Rappaport) (Shir; 1790–1867) was a rabbi and scholar, pioneer of Haskalah and Wissenschaft des Judentums. Born in Lemberg, Galicia, Rapoport, received a traditional education and became known for his brilliance as a Talmudist. After a period in business in Brody, he became rabbi of Tarnopol (1837), where he had to contend with the violent opposition of the Hasidim, whom he had attacked in a pamphlet (Ner Mitzvah, in: Nahalat Yehudah, 1868) in defense of Haskalah in 1815 (ref. introduction to She’erit Yehudah). Rapoport was appointed chief rabbi of Prague in 1840, successfully opposing the candidacy of R. Zevi Hirsch Chajes for the same position. After his youthful efforts at poetry and drama, including this paraphrase of Racine’s Esther, Rapoport turned to Jewish scholarship, publishing articles in Bikkurei ha-Ittim and Kerem Hemed. Dealing with biblical subjects, he considered the Book of Judges a composite work, certain Psalms to be post-Davidic, and some chapters in Isaiah as belonging to a later prophet. His real mark on Jewish scholarship was made in a series of bibliographical studies of the geonic leaders Rav Saadiah, Rav Hai, R. Hananel ben Hushi’el, R. Nissim ben Jacob, and R. Hefez ben Yazli’ah, and of R. Eleazar ha-Kallir and R. Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome, author of the Arukh (published in Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 1828–31; and also separately and posthumously under the title Yeri’ot Shelomo, 1904, repr. 1913 and 1960). These studies illuminated a relatively obscure period of Jewish history and paved the way for later research; moreover, they set a new standard of critical methodology to be applied to the history of rabbinics.

 

Hebrew Description:

מחזה מאת ז'אן ראסין], כולל נס הצלת ישראל על ידי מרדכי ואסתר בארח שיר ובדרך שיחת איש לרעהו ... [מתורגם לעברית, בחרוזים] מאת ש. י. ראפאפורט מלבוב.

עמ' 20-3: "פתח דבר" מאת המתרגם. נדפס באותו סדר-אותיות בתוך "בכורי העתים", תקפ"ח, 1827, עמ' 254-171. המקור: J. Racine, Esther, Paris 1689