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<font size=3>At 10:28 PM 2/15/2009, T613K@aol.com wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
</blockquote>He mentions Wessely in his commentary on Vayikra 11:3.
"</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Wessely, too, in his
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Commentary
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>on this verse, interprets
it in this way." <br><br>
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."<br><br>
In fact, Wessely is mentioned in a number of other places in RSRH's
commentary on Vayikra.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">You are most probably correct
when you say "</font>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. </blockquote><br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=3>The following is
from the Jewish Encyclopedia
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/cus7yu" eudora="autourl">
http://tinyurl.com/cus7yu</a> Clearly Wessely was a person
surrounded by controversy. YL</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3>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." <br>
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