Naphtali Herz Wessely and the Cultural Dislocations of an Eighteenth-Century Maskil
Naphtali Herz Wessely and the Cultural Dislocations of an Eighteenth-Century Maskil
This chapter focuses on Naphtali Herz Wessely, who was best known for his book Divrei shalom ve'emet (Words of Peace and Truth). Regarded as the formative text of the Haskalah, this book was a passionate response to Joseph II's Edict of Tolerance; in it, Wessely urged the Jews of the Habsburg Empire to enrol their children in state schools where they would follow a balanced curriculum, studying Jewish religious subjects as well as languages, science, and the humanities in an orderly fashion. The chapter then departs from the usual portrayal of Wessely and depicts him as alienated from both traditional and modernist Jews, as well as from the other maskilim, at least during the later years of his life. It describes Wessely's indecision and frustration, in particular his sense that no one properly understood his vision of cultural renewal, and it shows how Wessely's alienation was compounded by his anxiety about the growing dimensions of religious heresy and by his disaffection from traditional circles. The chapter also analyses Wessely's early writings, revealing that his major interests were twofold: the revival of biblical Hebrew as an essential tool for a more precise understanding of rabbinic literature, and an affirmation of the credibility of the Oral Torah that was being criticized by European scholars.
Keywords: Naphtali Herz Wessely, Divrei shalom ve'emet, Haskalah, Habsburg empire, Jews, maskilim, religious heresy, biblical Hebrew, rabbinic literature, Oral Torah
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