About the Book
This
study portrays a man and an age. Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller (1578-1654), author of
the famous Mishnah commentary Tosafot yom
tov, was a major talmudist, a disciple of the legendary Rabbi Judah Loew of
Prague, and himself the distinguished chief rabbi of Prague and Cracow. The
time in which he lived began as a ‘golden age’ for the Jews of Prague and the
Jews of Poland, an age of prosperity and the rise of Jewish mysticism. During
Heller’s lifetime, however, the golden age changed to darkness, and prosperity
gave way to war, persecution, plague, and massacres. It was the end of the
Middle Ages, the last generation before Spinoza and Shabbetai Zevi.
Scholar, preacher,
religious and communal leader, Heller embodied a religious and cultural ideal;
he was the very model of a seventeenth-century rabbi. Born in Germany, he moved
from one end of the world of Ashkenazi Jewry to the other, first to Prague, and
then to Poland and the Ukraine. His life was enmeshed in a web of family ties,
and bounded by complex rules of class and religion. His writing reflects not
only the full heritage of medieval Jewish thought and its crystallization in
the seventeenth century, but also the time and place in which he lived. In many
ways, he exemplified his age, its achievements, and its limitations.
Carefully researched
and well written, Joseph Davis’s work is the definitive biography of Heller. He
presents a richly detailed study of Heller’s worldview, his conception of
Judaism, of the world around him, and of himself within it: the seventeenth
century seen through seventeenth-century eyes. Heller was eyewitness to
momentous, epoch-making events: the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War and the
massacres of 1648. He lived through a time of tumultuous change. Texts such as
the sermon in which Heller responded to the new astronomy of Brahe and Kepler,
or a poem on the massacres of 1648 in which he enlarged the capacity of Hebrew
poetry to express horror are significant in the larger context of Jewish and
European history.
Heller’s
world-view was not static or motionless. His world changed greatly during his
lifetime, and his views of it likewise changed greatly over the fifty years
from his first writings to his last, from youth to middle age to old age. His
personal circumstances also contributed to this: the experience of betrayal,
arrest, imprisonment, the death of his children, and other misfortunes led him
to wrestle with such questions as the differences between Jews and non-Jews
and the meaning of suffering. Davis
weaves these developments succinctly into a fascinating narrative that does
full justice both to Heller and the momentous events he experienced.
Table of Contents:
List of abbreviations
Introduction
A Rabbinic Life * The Six Pillars * Philosophy and Mysticism in Ashkenazi Culture * Social Rabbis * The Politics of Seventeenth-Century Jews * Persecutions and Plagues * Satan in Goray
Part I The Ladder of Ascension, 1578-1617
1 The Orphan
The Orphan * Wallerstein, 1578 * Marriage in a Prominent Family * The Maharal of Prague * The New Curriculum * The Examination of the World
2 The Exile of a Philosopher
The Flowering of Philosophical Study among Ashkenazi Jews * Joseph ben Isaac and Givat haMoreh * 'A dwarf on the Shoulders of a Giant' * The Plague of 1611 * The Exile of a Philosopher
3 Two Kabbalists Isaiah Horowitz and the 'Repudiation of Philosophy' * Heller as Kabbalist * On Magic, Magidim, and the Individual Self * On Esotericism, Non-Kabbalistic Judaism, and the Purposes of Prayer * In Defence of Philosophy
4 Tosafot Yom Tov
The Maharal and the Revival of the Mishnah * On Rashi, Tosafot, and the Seventy Faces of Torah * The Exegetical Experience * Letter to Worms, 1616
5 Jews and Gentiles
The Nikolsburg Wine Controversy of 1616 * On Non-Jewish Bread and Non-Jewish Books * On Humanizing the Non-Jews * Against Trinitarianism, 1619 * On Unity
Part II The Trial, 1618-1630
6 Prague in Wartime
The Defenestration of Prague, 1618 * Letter to Vienna, 1619 * Fears * Prague, 1620: Habsburg Loyalist * On Providence and Miracles *Jacob Bassevi * The Plague of 1625
7 The Chief Rabbi
'Who are the Kings? The Rabbis * Rabbinic Activism and Educational Reform * 'Delights of the King' * Against the Shulhan arukh * On Humility * Interpretations and Decisions * The Constitutions of the Jews * The Title Page * Letter to Frankfurt, 1628
8 The Trial
The Arrest * In the Prison of Vienna * Deliverance * Explanations * On Politics * Again on Non-Jews * A Day of Remembrance
Part III Change and Defeat, 1631-1654
9 The Sermon
From Prague to Poland * 'The Lessening of the Moon' * Midrashic Natural History * On the New Astronomy * On Change * The Maharal and the Illusion of Self * The Acceptance of Suffering
10 Attacks and Retreats
To the Edge of Europe * Again on the Shulhan arukh * On Honour * The Ban on the Purchase of Rabbinic Office * Permission to Publish Kabbalah
11 A Rabbi's Autobiography
The Coronation, 1644 * Deliverance Narrative and Autobiography * On Silence * Family * On Himself
12 The Massacres of 1648
The Twentieth Day of Sivan * Fasting and Silence * Two Kinds of Messianism * Demonizing the Cossacks * The Absence of the King * 'You Have Become a Plague' * Letter to Checiny, 1651 Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller's Extant Works and Writings
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Joseph Davis is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought, Gratz College, Pennsylvania. He studied at Brown and Harvard universities.
Review :
'All in all a very nuanced biography of a prominent pre-modern rabbi, enjoyable for any Jewish history buff.'
- Roger S. Kohn, AJL Newsletter
'Joseph Davis ... has done remarkably well in producing the first English biography of one of the giants in European Jewish life.'
- Uri ben Alexander, European Judaism
'A welcome addition to the history of early modern Jews, those of eastern Europe in particular'
- Magda Teter, Jewish History
'Does this person merit a biography? The answer is a resounding yes ... The narrative style is very vivid, paying close attention to particulars of time, place, personality traits, and interpersonal relationships that bring the story to life. While the primary audience of this book is other Jewish historians, the work will also be useful to the Europeanist who is not familiar with the details of Jewish life. Davis situates Heller in the larger European context and highlights many interesting points of comparison between Jews and their Christian contemporaries ... an exemplary study of Ashkenazi Jewry through the lens of one of its leading personalities.'
- Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Renaissance Studies
'Highly successful biography ... Davis successfully brings Heller to life by detailing his intellectual achievements, his communal leadership, and personal travails ... a lucid and highly informative work that helps open the world of early modern Ashlenazic luminaries.'
- Shlomo Brody, Tradition Online
