A first edition of the Sefer Haktav Vehakabbalah, published in 1839 
which I sold this week, came appended with an interesting letter written
 by the author, R. Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg to a recipient of the sefer, 
Rav Chaim, the Av Bet Din in Gutentag (Dobrodzien of today). In the 
letter, Rav Mecklenburg writes of his intent in publishing such a book 
and the intended audience and his hopes that it effects their attitudes 
and beliefs.
He writes how he is responding to so-called wise
 men of the day, who venture to speak badly about the authors of the 
Talmud, accusing the Amoraim of a lack of knowledge of proper Hebrew. 
His work was thus intended to counteract the reform movements authors, 
whose writings of Bible Criticism and attacks on Rabbinic Judaism were 
prevalent at the time. It is therefore not surprising, that alongside 
the Vilna Gaon and Shadal, we find the author referencing non-Rabbinic 
sources, such as that of Julius Fürst, Mendelsson and Naphtali Hirz 
Wessely. R. Mecklenburg requests the assistance of the recipient of his 
letter to spread the published work and help defend the faith.
 He 
concludes the letter by mentioning that he is in the process of 
completing a second work on the Torah, which will supplement the Haktav 
Vehakabbalah and work in the same method. Unfortunately, this second 
work was never published.
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