Samuel David Luzzatto (, ; 22 August 1800 – 30 September 1865), also known by the Hebrew

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

Shadal (), was an Italian-Austrian Jewish scholar, poet, and a member of the

Wissenschaft des Judentums "''Wissenschaft des Judentums''" (literally in German language, German the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the United States it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquir ...

movement.

Early life

Luzzatto was born in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

on 22 August 1800 (

Rosh Hodesh In Judaism, Rosh Chodesh or Rosh Hodesh (; trans. ''Beginning of the Month''; lit. ''Head of the Month'') is a minor holiday observed at the beginning of every month in the Hebrew calendar, marked by the birth of a new moon. Rosh Chodesh is obs ...

, 1

Elul Elul (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard , Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ) is the twelfth month of the civil year and the sixth month of the Jewish religious year, religious year in the Hebrew calendar. It is a m ...

, 5560), and died at

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

on 30 September 1865 (

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October. For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...

, 10

Tishrei Tishrei () or Tishri (; ''tīšrē'' or ''tīšrī''; from Akkadian ''tašrītu'' "beginning", from ''šurrû'' "to begin") is the first month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year (wh ...

5626). While still a boy, he entered the

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah (, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew language, H ...

of his native city, where besides

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

, in which he was taught by Abraham Eliezer ha-Levi, chief rabbi of Trieste and a distinguished

pilpul ''Pilpul'' (, loosely meaning 'sharp analysis'; ) is a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either explain conceptual differences between various halakhic rulings or to reconcile any apparent contradictio ...

ist, he studied ancient and modern languages and science under Mordechai de Cologna, Leon Vita Saraval, and Raphael Baruch Segré, who later became his father-in-law. He studied the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

also at home, with his father, who, though a

turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

by trade, was an eminent

Talmudist The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. Luzzatto manifested extraordinary ability from his very childhood, such that while reading the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

at school, he formed the intention to write a commentary thereon, considering the existing commentaries to be deficient. In 1811 he received, as a prize,

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal so ...

's '' Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence'', which contributed much to the development of his critical faculties. Indeed, his literary activity began in that very year, for it was then that he undertook to write a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

grammar in Italian; translated into Hebrew the life of

Aesop Aesop ( ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE; formerly rendered as Æsop) was a Greeks, Greek wikt:fabulist, fabulist and Oral storytelling, storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence re ...

; and wrote

exegetical Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

notes on the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "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. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

. The discovery of an error in the published editions of the

Targum A targum (, ''interpretation'', ''translation'', ''version''; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( ''mǝṯurgǝmān'') would give in the common language o ...

Onkelos Onkelos ( ''ʾunqəlōs''), possibly identical to Aquila of Sinope, was a Roman national who converted to Judaism in Tannaic times ( 35–120 CE). He is considered to be the author of the Targum Onkelos ( 110 CE). In the Talmud Onkel ...

induced him to study

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

. At the age of thirteen Luzzatto was withdrawn from school, attending only the Talmud lectures of Abraham Eliezer ha-Levi. While reading the

Ein Yaakov ''Ein Yaakov'' (, "Jacob's Well") is a 16th-century compilation of all the Aggadic material in the Talmud together with commentaries.

he came to the conclusion that vowels and accents did not exist in the time of the Talmudists and that the

Zohar The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...

, speaking as it does of vowels and accents, must necessarily be of later composition. He propounded this theory in a pamphlet which was the origin of his later work ''Vikkuach 'al ha-Kabbalah''. In 1814 there began a most trying time for Luzzatto. As his mother died in that year, he had to do the housework, including cooking, and to help his father in his work as a turner. Nevertheless, by the end of 1815 he had composed thirty-seven poems, which form a part of his "Kinnor Na'im," and in 1817 had finished his ''Ma'amar ha-Niqqud'', a treatise on the

vowels A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

. In 1818 he began to write his ''Torah Nidreshet'', a philosophico-theological work of which he composed only twenty-four chapters, the first twelve being published in the ' (vols. 16–17, 21–24, 26), and the remainder translated into the Italian language by M. Coen-Porto and published in ''Mosé'' (i–ii). In 1879 Coen-Porto published a translation of the whole work in book form. In spite of his father's desire that he should learn a trade, Luzzatto had no inclination for one, and to earn his livelihood he was obliged to give private lessons, finding pupils with great difficulty on account of his timidity. From 1824, in which year his father died, he had to depend entirely upon himself. Until 1829 he earned a livelihood by giving lessons and by writing for the ''

Bikkure ha-Ittim ''Bikkure ha-Ittim'' () was a Hebrew language, Hebrew-language Annual publication, annual published in Vienna from 1820 to 1831. Founded by Salomon Jacob Cohen, it was adopted by the Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galician Haskalah, Maskilim as their me ...

''; in that year he was appointed professor at the rabbinical college of Padua.

Critical treatment of the Bible

At Padua, Luzzatto had a much larger scope for his literary activity, as he was able to devote all his time to literary work. Besides, while explaining certain parts of the Bible to his pupils he wrote down all his observations. Luzzatto was the first Jewish scholar to turn his attention to Syriac, considering a knowledge of this language of significant importance for the understanding of the Targum. His letter published in Kirchheim's ''Karme Shomeron'' shows his thorough acquaintance with

Samaritan Hebrew Samaritan Hebrew () is a reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch. For the Samaritans, Ancient Hebrew ceased to be a spoken everyday language. It ...

. He was also one of the first Jews who permitted themselves to amend the text of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Samson Cohen Modon and Manassa of Ilya); many of his emendations met with the approval of critical scholars of the day. Through a careful examination of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Luzzatto came to the conclusion that its author was not

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

, but someone who lived several centuries later and whose name was "Kohelet". The author, Luzzatto thinks, ascribed his work to Solomon, but his contemporaries, having discovered the forgery, substituted the correct name "Kohelet" for "Solomon" wherever the latter occurred in the book. While the notion of the non-Solomonic authorship of Ecclesiastes is today accepted by secular scholars, most modern scholars do not ascribe the work to an actual individual named "Kohelet", but rather regard the term as a label or designation of some kind, akin to the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

's translation of "Preacher." As to the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

, despite the prevalent opinion that chapters 40–66 were written after the

Babylonian captivity The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurred ...

, Luzzatto maintained that the whole book was written by

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

. He felt that one of the factors that pushed scholars to post-date the latter portion of the book stemmed from a denial of the possibility of prophetic prediction of distant future events, and therefore was a heretical position. Difference of opinion on this point was one of the causes why Luzzatto, after having maintained a friendly correspondence with Rapoport, turned against the latter. Another reason for the interruption of his relations with the

chief rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

was that Luzzatto, though otherwise on good terms with

Jost Jost is both a German given name and a surname and a Jewish (Ashkenazi) surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Jost Amman (1539–1591), Swiss * Jost Bürgi (1552–1632), Swiss clockmaker, maker of astronomical instruments ...

, could not endure the latter's extreme rationalism. He consequently requested Rapoport to cease his relations with Jost; but Rapoport, not knowing Luzzatto personally, ascribed the request to arrogance.

Views on philosophy

Luzzatto was a warm defender of Biblical and Talmudical Judaism, and his strong opposition to philosophical Judaism (or "atticism" as he terms it) brought him many opponents among his contemporaries. However, his antagonism to philosophy was not the result of fanaticism nor of lack of understanding. He claimed to have read during twenty-four years all the ancient philosophers, and that the more he read them the more he found them deviating from the truth. What one approves the other disproves; and so the philosophers themselves go astray and mislead students. Another of Luzzatto's main criticisms of philosophy is its inability to engender compassion towards other humans, which is the focus of traditional Judaism (or, as Luzzatto terms it, "Abrahamism"). For this reason, while praising

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

as the author of the

Mishneh Torah The ''Mishneh Torah'' (), also known as ''Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka'' (), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law (''halakha'') authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam). The ''Mishneh Torah'' was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE ( ...

, Luzzatto blames him severely for being a follower of the

Aristotelian philosophy Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the soc ...

, which (Luzzatto says) brought no good to himself while causing much evil to other Jews. Luzzatto also attacked

Abraham ibn Ezra Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionar ...

, declaring that Ibn Ezra's works were not the products of a scientific mind and that, as he needed to secure a livelihood to write a book in every town in which he sojourned, the number of his books corresponded with the number of towns he visited. Ibn Ezra's material, he declared, was always the same, the form being changed sometimes slightly, and at other times entirely.''Kerem Ḥemed'', iv. 131 et seq. Luzzatto's pessimistic opinion of philosophy made him naturally the adversary of

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

, whom he attacked on more than one occasion.

Luzzatto's works

During his literary career of more than fifty years, Luzzatto wrote a great number of works and scholarly correspondences in Hebrew, Italian, German and French. Besides, he contributed to most of the Hebrew and Jewish periodicals of his time. His correspondence with his contemporaries is both voluminous and instructive; there being hardly any subject in connection with Judaism on which he did not write. Isaiah Luzzatto published (Padua, 1881), under the respective Hebrew and Italian titles ''Reshimat Ma'amarei SHeDaL'' and ''Catalogo Ragionato degli Scritti Sparsi di S. D. Luzzatto'', an index of all the articles which Luzzatto had written in various periodicals. The ''Penine Shedal'' ('The Pearls of Samuel David Luzzatto'), published by Luzzatto's sons, is a collection of 89 of the more interesting of Luzzatto's letters. These letters are really scientific treatises, which are divided in this book into different categories as follows: bibliographical (numbers 1–22), containing letters on Ibn Ezra's ''Yesod Mora'' and ''Yesod Mispar''; liturgical-bibliographical and various other subjects (23–31); Biblical-exegetical (32–52), containing among others a commentary on Ecclesiastes and a letter on Samaritan writing; other exegetical letters (53–62); grammatical (63–70); historical (71–77), in which the antiquity of the Book of Job is discussed; philosophical (78–82), including letters on dreams and on the Aristotelian philosophy; theological (83–89), in the last letter of which Luzzatto proves that

Ibn Gabirol Solomon ibn Gabirol or Solomon ben Judah (, ; , ) was an 11th-century Jewish poet and philosopher in the Neo-Platonic tradition in Al-Andalus. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics and satire ...

's ideas were very different from those of Spinoza, and declares that every honest man should rise against the Spinozists.

In Hebrew

* 2. Padua. 1879. Collection of poems. * Elegy on the death of Abraham Eliezer ha-Levi. * Guide to the understanding of Targum Onkelus, with notes and variants; accompanied by a short Syriac grammar and notes on and variants in the Targum of Psalms. * 2. Vienna. 1859. By

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

, edited by Luzzatto, with notes of his own. * Revised and edited with variants. * Extracts from the diwan of

Judah ha-Levi Judah haLevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; ; ; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Sephardic Jewish poet, physician and philosopher. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets and is celebrated for his secular and religious poems, many of which ...

, edited with notes and an introduction. * Seventy-six epitaphs from the cemetery of Toledo, followed by a commentary on Micah by Jacob Pardo, edited with notes. * . 2. Przemysl. 1888. 3. Krakow. 1889. Collection of essays on the Hebrew language, exegetical and archaeological notes, collectanea, and ancient poetry. * Scholia to the Pentateuch. * Dialogues on

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

and on the antiquity of punctuation. * The Book of Isaiah edited with an Italian translation and a Hebrew commentary. * A historical and critical introduction to the

Maḥzor The ''machzor'' (, plural ''machzorim'', and , respectively) is the prayer book which is used by Jews on the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized ''machzorim'' on the three pilgrimage festivals ...

. * Eighty-six religious poems of Judah ha-Levi corrected, vocalized, and edited, with a commentary and introduction. * A catalogue of the Library of Joseph Almanzi. * A treatise on Hebrew grammar. * A poem of Abraham Bedersi, published for the first time with a preface and a commentary at the beginning of Bedersi's ''Hotam Tokhnit''. * Commentary on the Pentateuch. Padua. 1871. * commentary on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Proverbs, and Job. * In two parts; the first containing a list of the

Geonim ''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in t ...

and Rabbis, and the second one of the payyetanim and their piyyutim. * A treatise on Jewish dogma. * A collection of eighty-one unpublished

piyyutim A piyyuṭ (plural piyyuṭim, ; from ) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Most piyyuṭim are in Mishnaic Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, and most follow some p ...

, amended. * 301 letters, published by Isaiah Luzzatto and prefaced by David Kaufmann. *

In Italian

* (Annotated English edition by A. D. Rubin, 2005. * * * * * Italian translation of Job. Padua. 1853 * * * Italian translation of the Pentateuch and Hafṭarot. Triest, 1858–60 * * * Translated into German by Krüger, Breslau, 1873; into English by Goldammer, New York, 1876; and the part on the Talmudic dialect, into Hebrew by Hayyim Tzvi Lerner, St. Petersburg, 1880. * * * (first published by Luzzatto himself in "Mosé," i–vi.).

References

External links

*
Literature by and about Samuel David Luzzatto
in University Library JCS Frankfurt am Main: Digital Collections Judaica * '
English translation
*
A Letter to Almeda: Shadal’s Guide for the Perplexed
'. Luzzatto's explanation of the principles of Jewish faith, translated to English.
Digitized works by Samuel David Luzzatto
at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luzzatto, Samuel David 1800 births 1865 deaths 19th-century Italian rabbis 19th-century Jewish biblical scholars 19th-century Italian poets 19th-century Italian translators Grammarians from Italy Hebrew-language poets Italian Orthodox rabbis Jewish Italian writers Jewish poets Jewish translators of the Bible Samuel David People of the Haskalah Translators of the Bible into Italian Writers from Trieste