[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[Prof. Levine]

At 10:28 PM 2/15/2009, T613K at aol.com wrote:
>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.
>
He mentions Wessely in his commentary on Vayikra 
11:3. "Wessely, too, in his Commentary on this 
verse, interprets it in this way."

Also in his commentary on 13:3 and 13:4. Indeed 
on 13:4 he writes  "Wessely’s interpretation here 
is the best among the interpretations of this verse."

In fact, Wessely is mentioned in a number of 
other places in RSRH's commentary on Vayikra.

>You are most probably correct when you say "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)." Clearly RSRH did not consider hiim a reformer.


>The following is from the Jewish Encyclopedia 
>http://tinyurl.com/cus7yu  Clearly Wessely was a 
>person surrounded by controversy.  YL

Wessely was an ardent advocate of the educational 
and social reforms outlined in Emperor 
JosephII.'s "Toleranzedict." He even risked his 
reputation for piety by publishing a manifesto in 
eight chapters, entitled "Dibre Shalom we-Emet," 
in which he emphasized the necessity for secular 
instruction, as well as for other reforms, even 
from the points of view of the Mosaic law and the 
Talmud. This work has been translated into French 
as "Instructions Salutaires Adressées aux 
Communautés Juives de l'Empire de Joseph II." 
(Paris, 1792); into Italian by Elia Morpurgo 
(Goerz, 1793); and into German by David 
Friedländer under the title "Worte der Wahrheit 
und des Friedens" (Berlin, 1798). By thus 
espousing the cause of reform, as well as by his 
support of Mendelssohn, Wessely incurred the 
displeasure of the rabbinical authorities of 
Germany and Poland, who threatened him with 
excommunication. His enemies, however, were 
finally pacified through the energetic 
intervention of the Italian rabbis, as well as by 
Wessely's pamphlets "Me or en," in which he gave 
evidence of his sincere piety. In 1788 Wessely 
published in Berlin his ethical treatise "Sefer 
ha-Middot," a work of great moral worth. He 
published also several odes; elegies, and other 
poems; but his masterwork is his "Shire Tif'eret" 
(5 vols.; i.-iv., Berlin, 1782-1802; v., Prague, 
1829), describing in rhetorical style the exodus 
from Egypt. This work, through which he earned 
the admiration of his contemporaries, was 
translated into German (by G. F. Hufnagel and 
Spalding; 1789-1805), and partly into French (by 
Michel Berr; Paris, 1815). His commentaries on 
the Bible were published by the society Me i e 
Nirdamim (Lyck, 1868-75) under the title "Imre Shefer."

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