(FT) Hardcover, 12mo, 132 pages, 17 cm. In Hebrew. SUBJECT(S) : Judaism. Bible. O. T. -- Criticism and interpretation. Other Titles: Minim veugov. Zweifel (1815-1888) was a Hebrew author and essayist, one of the first Haskalah writers to view ? Asidism sympathetically. Zweifel was born in Mogilev. His father belonged to the Chabad movement, and his traditional education included rabbinic and hasidic literature, medieval studies, and Kabbalah. Later, he studied the works of the Haskalah and the Wissenschaft des Judentums writers in Hebrew and German. After many years of wandering in various Russian towns, earning his living by preaching and teaching, he was appointed lecturer in Mishnah and Talmud in the government rabbinical seminary at Zhitomir in 1853, remaining there until the seminary was closed in 1873. Zweifel was liked by his students, who included A. J. Paperna and M. Margolis, and inspired them with a love of Jewish tradition and the Talmud. By nature, he was a moderate; he tried as far as possible to emphasize the favorable aspect of everything and every person (preface to his Shalom al Yisrael) . His first book, Minim ve-Ugav, appeared in Vilna in 1858. It was a small but variegated collection of scriptural commentaries, homilies, and poems, deprecating the extreme attitudes of the Haskalah toward the devotees of the old religious tradition. The book aroused lively literary controversy, and was criticized with particular severity by Mendele Mokher Seforim, then a young student, in his pamphlet Mishpat Shalom. In Minim ve-Ugav, Zweifel employed a unique mixture of biblical, mishnaic, and talmudic language. David Frischmann exaggerates in calling him the father of the modern style, but he was undoubtedly one of those who led the change in Hebrew prose from the ornate biblical language to the modern literary style. Zweifels most important work was Shalom al Yisrael, which appeared in four parts in Zhitomir and Vilna between 1868 and 1873. The book defended ? Asidism in terms of modern values and marked a sharp contrast to the general hostility which virtually all maskilim had hitherto manifested toward that movement
The book aroused indignation and severe criticism among the maskilim, and Jewish censors sympathetic to the Haskalah tried to prevent its publication. The book sparked a reevaluation of Hasidism by scholars and writers, and led to the historical appraisal of the movement by S. Dubnow and a more romantic one by M. J. Berdyczewski, S. A. Horodezky, M. Buber, and others. After the closing of the rabbinical seminary in 1873, Zweifel lived in various towns in Russia and Poland, until he finally settled in the house of his daughter at Glukhov. His book Sanegor is a rebuttal to the accusations leveled against the Talmud by Jewish and gentile critics. Zweifel also wrote hundreds of articles in the Hebrew press, issued several works on ethics in Yiddish, including Musar Haskel and Tokha? At ? Ayyim, and published books by other authors, old and new, whose ideas were akin to his. Zweifels writings are distinguished by profuse quotations from rabbinic sources and his wide erudition. They lack, however, systematic structure, and today his works are primarily of historical interest (Slutsky in EJ, 2007) . OCLC lists 10 copies worldwide. Stained pages. Wear to cover edges, corners and spine. Otherwise, good very good condition. (Heb-36-14)
