[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[T613K at aol.com]

>> He is pointing out, in case anybody buys into the theory that
>> Moshe Rabbeinu himself made up the Torah, that Moshe was incapable of
>> creating such a complex system himself. He could not even think of a
>> hierarchical system of judges, how could he ever have thought up the
>> whole system of laws in the Torah?
>> [--TK]

> All of this is certainly true. Nonetheless, I find it surprising that
> he wrote in terms which I think many would consider not very flattering
> to Moshe Rabbeinu in order to make a point against the reformers.
> Yitzchok Levine  

It doesn't sound unflattering to me at all. In any case Hirsch did
not see himself as bringing in judgements or analyses from outside
the Torah. He saw himself as explaining and clarifying what was IN
the Torah. Therefore if the Torah indicates that Moshe couldn't have
thought of Yisro's system himself, then it is the Torah itself that
is being "unflattering" to Moshe Rabbeinu. As we know, the Torah
portrays the great men of our past as they were, not in idealized
visions of perfection. But to finish where I started, I don't consider
this particular trait -- that he didn't think of delegating -- to be
"unflattering" to Moshe at all.

To address your implicit criticism: Hirsch certainly would not have
*invented* anything in order to make a point against Reform. He merely
pointed out emes, what was right there in the Torah.

[Email #2. -mi]

>> [Hirsch] did not deign to actually name or quote any of those heretics
>> -- why give them such credibility, and why immortalize their names in a
>> work of Torah that he hoped would prove timeless? However, throughout
>> his Commentary there are many subtle arguments against the heretics,
>> and this example is typical. [--TK]

> I  recall him mentioning Naphtali Herz Wessely at some point in his 
> commentary.  He refers to him only as Wessely. From 
> <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639985/Naphtali-Herz-Wessely>
> --Britannica quote--
>> Jew" who had embraced Western culture, Mendelssohn's message to his
>> own community was to become Westerners, to seek out the culture of the
>> Enlightenment. To that end he joined with a poet, Naphtali Herz (Hartwig)
>> Wessely (1725 -- 1805), in translating the Torah into German, combining
>> Hebrew characters with modern German phonetics in an effort to displace
>> Yiddish, and wrote a modern...
> --end Britannica quote--
> Yitzchok Levine  

He may have mentioned Wessely in The Nineteen Letters, but not likely
in his commentary on Chumash. If you can find a place in the Hirsch
Chumash that mentions Wessely by name please let me know where, thanks.
Your Britannica citation shows Wessely to have been a modernizer and
perhaps proto-maskil but does not show that Hirsch quoted him.

In any case Wessely was not an actual Reformer nor was he an advocate of
the Documentary Hypothesis since he lived before the Reform movement and
before Haskala (though in some ways he could be considered a forerunner
of Reform and Haskalah). He died in 1805. Hirsch would probably not have
considered him an apikores. Wessely was an observant Jew. I think he
wrote part of Mendelssohn's Biur (on Vayikra?) and unless I'm confusing
him with someone else, I think some people consider his contributions
to have been "frummer" than those written by Mendelssohn himself.
As we have many history scholars here among the distinguished Avodah
membership, perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I am can weigh
in here.

--Toby Katz
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