Dor Hameasfim Beshahar Hahaskalah (review)

The transition of the Jewish people into modern times is the specialty of Professor Moshe Pelli, director of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Central Florida, who has produced an insightful text on the subject of the literature of the first Hebrew periodical, Hame’asef.

Written in Hebrew (along with a detailed English synopsis), the book opens the door to understanding a neglected aspect of Hebrew letters, within the larger Jewish and Hebrew Haskalah (Enlightenment).

Without question the revival of Hebrew is one of the seminal elements of the entrance of the Jews into modernity. The role Hebrew played in the development of the Haskalah movement is difficult to overestimate. One literary journal in particular, called Hame’asef (The Gatherer), issued from 1784 to 1811, played an important role in the growth of modern Hebrew. It was, in the author’s words, “the first modern Hebrew periodical at the beginning of the Haskalah in Germany.” This rarely studied periodical (and the writers who contributed to it) is the subject of Pelli’s impressive research.

In the introduction to the work, the author explains that there are two approaches to studying the phenomenology exemplified in Hame’asef: a literary and an extra-literary approach. The general literary conventions prevalent in Europe in the eighteenth century form the basis of the former.

The second approach utilized in evaluating Hame’asef relates to its extra-literary characteristics. These include various social and educational activities, promoted by the editors with a view toward advancing the principles and tenets of Haskalah. One goal was to bridge the gap between Jewish culture and general European culture. The other objective involved the attempt of Haskalah leaders and writers to reinterpret Judaism in a modern way; Hame’asef took an active role to that end.

The author devotes one chapter of his analysis to each of the five major literary genres represented in Hame’asef.

First, the author evaluates the poetry of Hame’asef—the most popular genre represented in the journal but the least studied genre in the literature of Haskalah. Indeed, poetry represents the high point of the creative process in Hebrew, including its artistic and linguistic aspects. Here, the author studies the efforts of Hame’asef’s editors to revise and reinterpret poetical expression. The proponents of Haskalah thus brought about a syncretism between Jewish values and those of the European Enlightenment.

Secondly, the author breaks new ground in evaluating the genre of fiction, as found in Hame’asef. He notes that these stories, relatively few in number, represent the efforts of Hebrew writers at the beginning of the German Haskalah to establish a new, modern Hebrew literature. He highlights the use of various literary techniques employed in a number of sub-categories of prose narrative, represented in the journal. This represents a fresh new element of Haskalah criticism.

Thirdly, the author takes up the fable—“one of the most popular genres of eighteenth-century European literature”—of which a total of fifty-five appear in the ten volumes of the journal. Hame’asef’s treatment of the fable is considered, in light of the fact that fables were originally thought to be a sub-category of poetry and only later evaluated as a separate and distinct literary genre. Both original Hebrew fables and fables adapted from other languages are examined in light of the overall development of Hebrew fiction, and vis-à-vis the European and Hebrew traditions of the fable.

Fourthly, one of the most widespread of genres appearing in the journal, the epigram, is analyzed. The author examines the diverse definitions and forms of the epigram in its evolution during the centuries prior to the Enlightenment, and he discusses the place of the ninety-four epigrams represented in Hame’asef within the greater context of eighteenth-century European literature, in which its use was also widespread...