Bidspirit auction | Polemic – Masechet Avot with

Polemic – Masechet Avot with the Commentary Yen Levanon. Berlin, 1775. First Edition - *Polemic – Masechet Avot with the Commentary Yen Levanon, by Naftali Hertz Wessely. Berlin, 1775. First Edition. Masechet Avot with the commentary Yen Levanon, by Rabbi Naftali Hertz Wessely. Berlin, 1775. First edition. Printed with approbations of the great sages of the generation: Rabbi Shaul, Av Beit Din of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam; Rabbi Yechezkel HaLevi Landau of Prague, author of Noda BiYehuda; and others. The book and its author aroused a great controversy, as the author expressed sympathy towards Moses Mendelssohn, the father of the Haskalah. About seven years later, the Noda BiYehuda himself wrote sharp letters against Wessely’s pamphlet Divrei Shalom Ve’Emet, and both he and Rabbi David Tevele withdrew their approbations. Nevertheless, the work was accepted in most Jewish communities, and his words were cited in later commentaries on Pirkei Avot. The author, Rabbi Naftali Hertz Wessely [1725–1805], one of the pioneers of the Haskalah, was a philologist, writer, and poet. Born in Hamburg and raised in Copenhagen, he studied Talmud and halacha in yeshivot, while also mastering Hebrew grammar, mathematics, sciences, history, and foreign languages. He worked in trade and banking, and later in a bank in Amsterdam. In 1769 he returned to Copenhagen. His pamphlet Divrei Shalom Ve’Emet ignited a fierce debate between early maskilim and the rabbis of Europe, as it presented a value hierarchy in which “man” preceded “Jew, ” considered radical at the time. With the Mafteach Sheni leaves, which are not found in all copies (in the present copy they are bound at the beginning of the volume). [8], 150, [2] leaves. 31.5 cm. Very goo condition.