Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev

Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה לֵיבּ בֵּן־זְאֵב‎, German: Juda Löb Bensew; 18 August 1764 – 12 March 1811) was a Galician Jewish philologist, lexicographer, and Biblical scholar. He was a member of the Me'assefim group of Hebrew writers,[3][4] and a "forceful proponent of revitalizing the Hebrew language".[5]

Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev
Born(1764-08-18)18 August 1764[1]
Lelov, Krakow Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth[2]
Died12 March 1811(1811-03-12) (aged 46)
Vienna, Austrian Empire
Pen nameY. L. K., Yehuda Leib Krakow
LanguageHebrew
Literary movementHaskalah

Biography

Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev was born in the Galician town of Lelov and received a traditional religious education.[6] He was married off at the age of 13 and settled in the home of his wife's parents in Krakow,[7] where he spent his days studying Talmud and his nights in clandestinely acquiring the knowledge of Hebrew philology and of secular subjects.[8] In 1787 he moved to Berlin, then the centre of the Haskalah movement.[9] There, he supported himself by teaching Hebrew and began publishing poems and parables in the Hebrew press.[10] Ben-Ze'ev became friends with the Me'assefim and contributed to their journal poems and fables signed "Y. L. K." (Yehuda Leib Krakow).[2]

In 1790 Ben-Ze'ev took up residence in Breslau, where he wrote and published his Hebrew grammar, Talmud lashon ʻIvri, in 1796. Two years later he published his Hebrew translation from Syriac of the apocryphal Book of Sirach, called by Franz Delitzsch a "masterpiece of imitation of Biblical gnomic style",[11] followed by a translation from Greek of the Book of Judith.[12] Ben-Ze'ev returned from Breslau to Krakow and in 1799 formally divorced his wife, with whom he had one daughter.[1] He settled in Vienna as proofreader in the Hebrew presses of Joseph Hraszansky and Anton Schmid and remained there till his death.[10]

Work
Title page of Ben-Ze'ev's Talmud lashon ʻIvri

Prose

Ben-Ze'ev is considered the first to systematize, in the Hebrew language itself, Hebrew grammar, to arrange it methodically and to introduce logic, syntax, and prosody as part of grammatical studies.[13] His grammar Talmud lashon ʻIvri served as the main source for the study of Hebrew in Eastern Europe for a hundred years.[9] The work is divided into five parts, each prefaced with a poem in praise of the Hebrew language, and includes a ma'amar on the difference between thought and speech.[14] It was republished with additions, annotations, and commentaries no less than twenty times.[15] Most notable is the Vilna edition of 1874, with the commentary "Yitron le-Adam" by Avraham Ber Lebensohn. The first part of a German revision of his Talmud by Salomon Jacob Cohen appeared in Berlin in 1802, and three parts in Dessau in 1807.[13]

His second-most popular work was the Otzar ha-shorashim, a lexicon of Hebrew roots and Hebrew-German dictionary, inspired by the work of David Kimḥi.[9][16] First published in Vienna between 1806 and 1808, the book went through six editions up to 1880.[17] Ben-Ze'ev's Mesillat ha-limmud, a grammatical work for school-age children,[18] was translated into Italian by Leon Romani (Vienna, 1825) and into Russian by Abraham Jacob Paperna (Warsaw, 1871).[19]

Ben-Ze'ev released new editions and commentaries to the Saadia Gaon's Sefer ha-emunot ve-ha-de'ot (Berlin, 1789) and Yedidya ha-Penini's Beḥinat ha-'Olam (1789).[20][21] His last major work was Mavo el mikraʼe kodesh (Vienna, 1810), an anthology of historical-critical introductions to each of the books of the Prophets and Hagiographa.[17] The Mavo adopts some of the critical theories of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.[22][23]

Poetry

Ben-Ze'ev was the author of Melitzah le-Purim, a collection of mock prayers and seliḥot for Purim, which was often published with Kalonymus ben Kalonymus' celebrated Talmudical parody Masekhet Purim.[24] In 1810, he released a poem in honour of the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma.[25] Ben-Ze'ev also composed the earliest-known Hebrew erotic poems in the modern era,[26][27] which circulated widely in manuscript form but were not published until the 20th century.[21] These include Shir agavim, published by Getzel Kressel in 1977,[25][28] and Derekh gever be-almah, a description of sexual intercourse using combinations of fractions of biblical verses.[24]

Criticism

While well regarded in Maskilic circles, Ben-Ze'ev was the subject of bitter denunciation from many traditionalists because of his heterodox Enlightenment activities.[29] Rumours circulated of the writer having died on the toilet as divine punishment for editing the Talmud lashon ʻIvri on the Sabbath.[30][31][32]

Partial bibliography
  • Talmud lashon ʻIvri: kolel yesodot dikduk ha-lashon [Study of the Hebrew Language] (in Hebrew). Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1805 [1796].
  • Ḥokhmat Yehoshua ben Sira: neʻetak li-leshon ʻIvri ve-Ashkenazi u-meturgam Aramit [The Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira] (in Hebrew and Yiddish). Breslau. 1798.
  • Beit ha-sefer: mesillat ha-limmud [The School] (in Hebrew). 1. Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1816 [1802].
  • Megilat Yehudit: ve-hu maʻase Yehudit im Oloferni [The Book of Judith] (in Hebrew and Yiddish). Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1819 [1799].
  • Otzar ha-shorashim: kolel shorashe ha-lashon ha-ʻIvrit [Treasure of Roots] (in Hebrew). 1–3. Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1807.
  • Mavo el mikraʼe kodesh [Introduction of the Holy Scriptures] (in Hebrew). Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1810.
  • Yesode ha-dat: kolel ʻikkre ha-emunah [The Foundations of Religion: Including the Tenets of Faith] (in Hebrew). Vienna: Anton Schmid. 1811.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ginzberg, Louis; Wiernik, Peter (1902). "Judah Löb Ben-Ze'eb". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. 2. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 681–682.

  1. Wurzbach, Constantin, von, ed. (1856). "Bensef, Juda Löb" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). 1. pp. 281–282 – via Wikisource.
  2. Zinberg, Israel (1976). The Berlin Haskalah. A History of Jewish Literature. Translated by Martin, Bernard. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press. pp. 182–185. ISBN 978-0-87068-477-7.
  3. Pelli, Moshe (2001). Dor ha-Meʼasfim be-shaḥar ha-Haskalah (in Hebrew). Bnei Brak: Hotsaʼat ha-kibbutz ha-meʼuḥad. ISBN 978-965-02-0148-7. OCLC 48715696.
  4. Pelli, Moshe (2005). "קיום הלשון בקיום אומתה: פריודיזציה בתפיסת השפה והספרות של סופר ההשכלה יהודה ליב בן-זאב" (PDF). Leshonenu La'am (in Hebrew). 54 (4): 170–178. ISSN 0024-1091.
  5. Rabinowitz, Dan (2019). The Lost Library: The Legacy of Vilna's Strashun Library in the Aftermath of the Holocaust. The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry. Waltham: Brandeis University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-5126-0310-1. OCLC 1113857577.
  6. Ersch, J. S.; Gruber, J. G., eds. (1822). "Ben-Sew". Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (in German). 9. Leipzig: Johan Friedrich Gleditsch. p. 42.
  7. Klausner, Joseph. Historyah shel ha-sifrut ha-ʻIvrit ha-ḥadashah [History of Modern Hebrew Literature] (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press. p. 157. OCLC 774488646.
  8. Kaddari, Menachem Zevi (2007). "Ben Ze'ev, Judah Leib". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference.
  9. Kaddari, Menachem Zevi. "Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  10. Brisman, Shimeon (2000). A History and Guide to Judaic Dictionaries and Concordances. Jewish Research Literature. 3. KTAV Publishing House. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-88125-658-1.
  11. Delitzsch, Franz (1836). Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Poësie: vom Abschluß der heiligen Schriften Alten Bundes bis auf die neueste Zeit (in German). Leipzig: Tauchnitz. p. 110.
  12. Sæbø, Magne, ed. (1996). Hebrew Bible, Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. II. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 1021–1022. ISBN 978-3-525-53982-8.
  13.  Ginzberg, Louis; Wiernik, Peter (1902). "Judah Löb Ben-Ze'eb". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. 2. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 681–682.
  14. Zwiep, Irene E. (2002). "Imagined Speech Communities: Western Ashkenazi Multilingualism as Reflected in Eighteenth-Century Grammars of Hebrew". Studia Rosenthaliana. 36: 77–117. doi:10.2143/SR.36.0.504917. JSTOR 41482644.
  15. Pelli, Moshe (2010). Haskalah and Beyond: The Reception of the Hebrew Enlightenment and the Emergence of Haskalah Judaism. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-5204-9.
  16. Schatz, Andrea (2007). ""Peoples Pure of Speech": The Religious, the Secular, and Jewish Beginnings of Modernity". In Ruderman, David B.; Feiner, Shmuel (eds.). Early Modern Culture and Haskalah: Reconsidering the Borderlines of Modern Jewish History. Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook. VI. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 169–187. ISBN 978-3-525-36933-3.
  17. Bezzel, Hannes; Hecht, Louise; Schorch, Grit (2019). "Die Anfänge moderner Bibelwissenschaft in der Wiener Haskala". In Vorpahl, Daniel; Kähler, Sophia; Tzoref, Shani (eds.). Deutsch-jüdische Bibelwissenschaft: Historische, exegetische und theologische Perspektiven [German-Jewish Bible Scholarship: Historical, Exegetical, and Theological Perspectives] (in German). Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 171–194. doi:10.1515/9783110551631-012. ISBN 978-3-11-055163-1. OCLC 1090073918.
  18. Shavit, Zohar (2020). "Cultural translation and the recruitment of translated texts to induce social change: The case of the Hasakalah". In Van Coillie, Jan; McMartin, Jack (eds.). Children's Literature in Translation: Texts and Contexts. Leuven: Leuven University Press. pp. 73–92. ISBN 978-94-6270-222-6.
  19. Ben-Ze'ev, Judah Leib (1873). Месилатъ галимудъ, или Руководство къ начальному изученію еврейскаго языка (in Russian). Translated by Paperna, Abraham Jacob. Warsaw: Defus Aleksander Ginz. OCLC 236175956.
  20. Meyer, Joseph, ed. (1845). "Ben-Sev". Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (in German). 4. Hildburghausen: Bibliographisches Institut. p. 396.
  21. Breuer, Edward (1996). "(Re)creating Traditions of Language and Texts: The Haskalah and Cultural Continuity". Modern Judaism. 16 (2): 161–183. doi:10.1093/mj/16.2.161. JSTOR 1396453. S2CID 143488909.
  22. Brettler, Marc Zvi; Breuer, Edward (2015). "Jewish readings of the Bible". In Riches, John (ed.). The New Cambridge History of the Bible. 4. Cambridge University Press. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-521-85823-6.
  23. Shavit, Yaacov; Eran, Mordechai (2008). "Wellhausen and his School: The Jewish Response to Higher Criticism". The Hebrew Bible Reborn: From Holy Scripture to the Book of Books. Berlin: De Gruyter. p. 115. ISBN 978-3-11-019141-7. ISSN 0585-5306.
  24. Ben-Yishai, Aharon Zeev (2007). "Parody, Hebrew". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference.
  25. Gabbay, Nati (26 March 2017). "למבוגרים בלבד: סיפורו של שיר הסקס מהמאה ה-18" [For Adults Only: The Story of the 18th Century Erotic Poem]. The Librarians. National Library of Israel. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  26. Lowin, Shari L. (2014). Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems in Al-Andalus. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-135-13153-1.
  27. Eshed, Eli (24 August 2020). "האירוטיקה הראשונה בעברית: "שיר עגבים" ומחברו יהודה לייב בן זאב" [The First Hebrew Erotica: Shir Agavim and Its Author Yehuda Leib Ben Ze'ev]. Ha-multi yekum shel Eli Eshed (in Hebrew).
  28. Biale, David (1997). Eros and the Jews: From Biblical Israel to Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-520-21134-6.
  29. Heller, Marvin J. (2018). Printing the Talmud: Complete Editions, Tractates, and Other Works and the Associated Presses from the Mid-17th Century through the 18th Century. Brill's Series in Jewish Studies. 62. Leiden: Brill. pp. 201–205. doi:10.1163/9789004376731. ISBN 978-90-04-37673-1.
  30. Braun, Ḥananya Yom-Tov Lipa (1943). Toldos anshe shem (in Hebrew). Marghita: Tzvi Moskovitz. p. 36.
  31. Pollack, Yosef Shimon, ed. (1928). Bais va'ad la-ḥakhamim (in Hebrew). Satmar: Jacob Wider. p. 15.
  32. Tefilinski, Ya'akov Shlomo (2002). Sefer imre sefer: leket amarim ve-sipurim al sefarim (in Hebrew). Jerusalem. pp. 499–500. OCLC 56345331.
  33. Malakhi, A. R. (16 March 1962). "מעוז צור – פארודיה בלתי ידועה לפורים". Herut (in Hebrew). p. 6.
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