Authors:Gad Freudenthal First page: 1 Abstract: Source: Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 1 - 55This article presents the history of a printing press that operated at several places near Berlin during the first half of the eighteenth century, culminating in the epoch-making reprinting of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in 1742. The press was established in Dessau in 1694 by the court Jew Moses Wulff (1661–1729), and was run by several printers, notably the convert Israel b. Abraham (fl. 1715–1752). Using the trajectory of the Wulff press as a case study, I examine the relations between scholars, patrons of learning (especially court Jews), printers, and book publishing. The inquiry will highlight the considerable role that court Jews played in shaping the Jewish bookshelf, notably by choosing which books (reprints and original) would be funded. Surprisingly perhaps, although court Jews were in continuous contact with the environing culture, they did not usually favor the printing of non-traditional Jewish works that would favor a rapprochement. PubDate: 2018-04-05T00:00:00Z
Authors:Jacob Haberman First page: 56 Abstract: Source: Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 56 - 87Bergson’s troublesome relation to Judaism has been examined briefly by Aimé Pallière in Bergson et le Judaisme (Paris: F. Alcan, 1933) and his ambivalent attraction to Roman Catholicism by the learned Dominican philosopher-theologian Antonin Sertillanges in Henri Bergson et le catholicisme (Paris: Flammarion, 1941). Vladimir Jankélevitch, in his study Henri Bergson (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959), has an appendix entitled “Bergson et le Judaisme,” However, he is concerned with the affinity between Bergsonism and Judaism rather than with Bergson’s adverse criticism of the Jewish religion. I mention these studies without discussing them further in appreciation of their pioneering work and to acknowledge that I have taken cognizance of their opinions. The belief that one can ignore the work of previous scholars leaves no basis for the expectation that our own work will prove of any value to others, but I do believe that Bergson’s strictures on Judaism deserve an examination of Jewish and Christian texts as well as an analysis of time by Jewish thinkers. PubDate: 2018-04-05T00:00:00Z
Authors:Zvi Ron First page: 88 Abstract: Source: Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 88 - 106On Mondays and Thursdays many supplications are added to the standard Tachanun prayer. These additions are not noted in the Talmud, and first appear in Geonic literature. This article traces the development of the Monday/Thursday Tachanun, from its beginnings as a short prayer with multiple options, to its later form as a long prayer with no room for personal choices. The current traditional Monday/Thursday Tachanun is seen to be a collection of many smaller earlier Tachanun prayers. PubDate: 2018-04-05T00:00:00Z
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