Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev

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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

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]

Biography

Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev was born in the Galician town of Lelov and received a traditional Jewish 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

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 Edler von 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

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]. 880-03Ben sira (in Hebrew and Yiddish). Breslau. 1798.
  • Beit ha-sefer: mesillat ha-limmud [The School]. 880-04Limude ha-mesharim (in Hebrew). Vol. 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). Vol. 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.

External links

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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. Vol. 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). Vol. 1. pp. 281–282 – via Wikisource
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87068-477-7
    .
  3. OCLC 48715696
    .
  4. ISSN 0024-1091
    .
  5. OCLC 1113857577
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  6. ^ Ersch, J. S.; Gruber, J. G., eds. (1822). "Ben-Sew". Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (in German). Vol. 9. Leipzig: Johan Friedrich Gleditsch. p. 42.
  7. OCLC 774488646
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  8. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4
    .
  9. ^ a b c Kaddari, Menachem Zevi. "Judah Leib Ben-Ze'ev". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-88125-658-1
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  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. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020.
  12. ISBN 978-3-525-53982-8
    .
  13. ^ a b  Ginzberg, Louis; Wiernik, Peter (1902). "Judah Löb Ben-Ze'eb". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 681–682.
  14. JSTOR 41482644
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-7618-5204-9
    .
  16. ISBN 978-3-525-36933-3
    .
  17. ^
    S2CID 188011979
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  18. ISBN 978-94-6270-222-6
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  19. OCLC 236175956
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  20. ^ Meyer, Joseph, ed. (1845). "Ben-Sev". Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (in German). Vol. 4. Hildburghausen: Bibliographisches Institut. p. 396.
  21. ^
    S2CID 143488909
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  22. ISBN 978-0-521-85823-6
    .
  23. ISSN 0585-5306
    .
  24. ^
    ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4
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  25. ^ a b 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. ISBN 978-1-135-13153-1
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  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. ISBN 978-0-520-21134-6
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  29. S2CID 165728742
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  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. OCLC 56345331.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  33. ^ Malakhi, A. R. (16 March 1962). "מעוז צור – פארודיה בלתי ידועה לפורים". Herut (in Hebrew). p. 6.
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