Tobias Gutmann Feder (; ,

Przedbórz Przedbórz is a town in Radomsko County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,458 inhabitants (2020). Przedbórz is situated on the Pilica River in the northwestern corner of the historic province of Lesser Poland. From its foundation until the ...

– 1817, Ternopil) was a Galician

Maskilic The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

writer, poet, and grammarian. He wandered through Galicia, Poland, and Russia with his family as an itinerant scholar, supporting himself financially by working as a teacher, proofreader, merchant, scribe, cantor, and preacher.

Work

Feder's first book, ''Bayit ne'eman'' (1794), was an ethical treatise on truth. This was followed by an elegy on the death of the

Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of ...

, entitled ''Kol nehi'' (1798). Like the Gaon, Feder was a bitter opponent of Ḥasidism and mysticism; to this end, he wrote ''Zemir aritzim'', a satirical polemic against the Ḥasidic movement. In 1804, Feder published ''Lahat ha-ḥerev'', an attack on modern

Biblical criticism Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...

directed against Aaron Wolfssohn and Isaac Satanov. The same year he released ''Mevasser tov'', an introduction to Hebrew grammar with a criticism of the Masorah commentary ''Menorat Shlomo'', by Rabbi Phoebus of Dubrovno. Feder also wrote ''Kol meḥatzetzim'' ('Voice of the Archers', 1813), a bitter satire against Menachem Mendel Lefin for his

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

translation of the

Book of Proverbs The Book of Proverbs ( he, מִשְלֵי, , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the Christian Old Testament. When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different ...

. The controversial work circulated in manuscript among Maskilim, but was first published only in 1853 in an expurgated version. He composed two poems on the defeat of the French in Russia: ''Kol simḥah ve-sason'' (1814), a song of triumph written for the Jewish community of

Berdychev Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...

, and ''Hatzlaḥat Aleksander'' (1814), an ode to Alexander I of Russia. Additional works by Feder were published after his death, including a rhymed play entitled ''Adam ve-Ḥavah'' (' Adam and Eve'), the ''Zohar ḥadash le-Purim'', a humorous parody for Purim in Aramaic, and ''Shem u-she'erit'', a volume of literary

epistles An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part ...

and poems. Feder deeply influenced the literary work of the Galician Jewish poet Abraham Reif.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feder, Tobias Gutmann 18th-century births 1817 deaths People of the Haskalah 18th-century Jews Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Hebrew-language poets Polish satirists Grammarians of Hebrew Jewish dramatists and playwrights Polish male dramatists and playwrights Hebrew-language playwrights 18th-century dramatists and playwrights 19th-century dramatists and playwrights