Linguistics vs. Pedagogics: The Bible Exegesis of Juda Löw Jeitteles (1773-1838)

Mendelssohn’s Be’ur was arguably the most important publication of Berlin Haskalah; it epitomized Haskalah’s approach to Scripture as well as to language(s). Consequently, the work was attacked by traditional rabbis, even before its completion in 1783. Another target of criticism was Naphtali Herz Weisel’s treatise Divre Shalom ve-Emet (Berlin, 1781/2) that outlined Haskalah’s vision for the reformation of Jewish education. Weisel suggested that the Bible as well as German and Hebrew language be studied with Mendelssohn’s Be’ur.

The following generation of Berlin Maskilim continued the bible project by translating further books. Like the reformation of Jewish education, the project only reached its final form when transferred to the Habsburg Monarchy. The publishing house of Anton Schmid in Vienna reprinted the German volumes of the Be’ur around 1800; but soon Schmid contracted Maskilim like Juda Leib Ben Ze’ev, Me’ir Obernik and Samuel Detmold who translated the remaining books of the Bible. The series, named Minchah Chadashah, was published in 1808.

In the 1820s, Juda Jeitteles moved from Prague to Vienna. Schmid commissioned him with a revision of the Bible edition that was reprinted as Kitve Kodesh. Jeitteles was an accomplished philologist especially of the Aramaic language. He started revising the Aramaic parts of the Bible with linguistic zeal. However, the edition was to serve as a textbook for Jewish children. Therefore he had to adapt the translation and the commentary to pedagogical requirements. The paper will expound how Jeitteles navigated between linguistic aspirations and pedagogic needs when preparing the new edition.