Avigdor ben Simḥah ha-Levi Glogauer (; –1810), also known as Avigdor Levi () and by the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

Alem (), was a German Jewish grammarian and poet.

Biography

Avigdor Glogauer was born to poor Jewish parents in the lower Silesian town of Glogau. His father Simḥah was a pious

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

teacher, and his mother Bräunche was a member of the prominent Teomim rabbinical family. Glogauer was a private tutor for some time in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, where he joined

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

's circle of '' maskilim''. He moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 1768, and there became a teacher. Early in 1773, while traveling through

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, he was arrested on a false charge of theft, and lingered in the prison of Pirna for ten months. During his confinement he pursued his studies in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

, and medieval Hebrew philosophy without interruption. A letter from Mendelssohn, dated January 13, 1774, convinced the authorities to clear him of all suspicion and set him at liberty. Through the aid of Isaac Dessau and his relative, Rabbi

Hirschel Levin Rabbi Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin (also known as Hart Lyon and Hirshel Löbel; 1721 – 26 August 1800) was Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and of Berlin, and Rabbi of Halberstadt and Mannheim, known as a scholarly Talmudist. Life He was born in ...

of Berlin, he was enabled to return to Prague.AVIGDOR BEN SIMḤAH HA-LEVI OF GLOGAU (or Glogauer ; pseudonym Alem ; c. 1725–1810), teacher and author. In his youth he was one of the maskilim of Moses Mendelssohn's circle in Berlin. He later (1768) moved to Prague where he wrote a short Hebrew grammar, Davar Tov, which he published together with the treatise Marpe Lashon by R. Moses b. Ḥaviv (Prague, 1783). Avigdor also published a collection of Mendelssohn's letters to him, Iggerot Remad (in two pamphlets, Vienna, 1792, 1797), in one of which Mendelssohn explains his purpose in translating the Pentateuch into German. The second volume also contains a selection of Avigdor's poems entitled Ḥotam Tokhnit.

Work

The first work Avigdor published was an elementary Hebrew grammar entitled ''Davar tov'' ('A Good Thing'; Prague, 1783), with a ''

haskama An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the R ...

'' by Rabbi Yechezkel Landau. The book included a table of conjugations, as well as an excerpt of Moses ibn Ḥabib's linguistic treatise ''Marpe lashon'' ('Healing of Speech'). In 1792 he edited the first series of letters which Mendelssohn had addressed to him, and in 1797 supplemented it with a second series. This supplement forms the appendix to his didactic poem, ''Ḥotem tokhnit'' ('The Perfect Seal'), which aims at proving that the teachings of the Bible surpass all the systems of philosophy ever invented, from

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

. In 1802 Avigdor edited the

Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the sa ...

with the commentary of Mendelssohn and an introduction of his own. The last of his literary efforts was a poem included in Ze'ev Wolf Buchner's ''Tzaḥut ha-melitzah'' (Berlin, 1810).

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glogauer, Avigdor 1720s births 1810 deaths 18th-century German educators 18th-century German Jews 18th-century German male writers 18th-century German poets Grammarians of Hebrew Hebrew-language poets Jewish educators Jewish German writers Jewish grammarians People from Głogów People of the Haskalah Prisoners and detainees of Germany