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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