In Search of Genre: Hebrew Enlightenment and Modernity (review)

Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 373 Reviews IN SEARCH OF GENRE: HEBREW ENLIGHTENMENT AND MODERNITY. By Moshe Pelli. Pp. 361. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2005. Paper, $45.00. There is no way whatsoever to underestimate the importance and prominence of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement in the evolution of modern Hebrew/Jewish thought, culture, and literature as well as the evolution of Jewish nationality. Like the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud, the Haskalah movement that budded in Italy, Germany, Austria, and later in Russia and Poland at the end of the eighteen century, blazed a new trail in the Hebrew/Jewish world. That new trail introduced modernity to the Jewish world in the broadest meaning of the term. Indeed, modern Hebrew literature that commenced with Mendele (Sh. Y. Abramowitz) and later with Ch. N. Bialik and S. Tchernichowsky at the commencement of the twentieth century could not evolve and thrive without the pioneering and daring work of the early Haskalah writers. The Haskalah was not limited, however, to belle letters only. It produced a bountiful yield in fields such as science, philosophy, education, Hebrew linguistics, biblical commentary, history, pedagogy, and much more. Like the Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Responsa literature in their times, the Haskalah molded and dictated the spiritual portrait of the Jewish people for numerous years to come. In his comprehensive and insightful book under review, Professor Moshe Pelli does the most worthy justice to the nature of the early Haskalah and its role in sculpting the new secular world of the Jewish nation after hundreds of years of being “besieged” by religious thought and scholarship only. Although no one aims to undermine that stupendous value of Jewish religious scholarship, it eventually acted in the capacity of a stumbling block that dammed modernity and secular knowledge and creativity upon the part of the Jewish people. In this respect, the Haskalah movement operated as a harbinger that knocked down the suffocating walls of the Jewish mental/spiritual ghetto and heralded modernity and freedom of thought and creativity in the new world of the Jewish people. Pelli’s book introduces the commencing evolution of the Hebrew/Jewish Haskalah movement in the late eighteenth century in Prussia with both elucidating attention and penetrating insight. The book casts a valuable light upon the Haskalah’s agenda and accomplishments: the rebirth of Hebrew letters, the revival of the Hebrew language and the rejuvenation of the Jewish people. The first Hebrew periodical, “Hame’asef” (The Gatherer) was established at the dawn of the Haskalah in Germany. That periodical heralded and advocated the ideology, credo, and practice of the Haskalah. The Maskilim (the enlightenment/Haskalah seekers) focused on Jewish/ Hebrew issues. They desired to bring modernity to the Jewish world and to establish Hebrew Studies 49 (2008) 374 Reviews a bridge between the past and the present. Hence the Haskalah brought the long period of Jewish passivity and sole religiously-oriented inclinations to an end by revitalizing the Jewish concept of “ge’ula” (redemption) in the most vigorous fashion. One of the cultural-national proclivities of the Haskalah was reviving the Hebrew language as a language that could unite the Jewish nation in times of modernity. As a linguistic model for the latter, Haskalah chose Biblical Hebrew, although Mishnaic Hebrew is more “modern” and rich. Nevertheless , as the orthodox rabbis opposed both bitterly and blatantly Haskalah (that promoted the departure from the Jewish religious-mental ghetto) and as the Mishnah (as well as the Talmud) are associated with Jewish orthodoxy, the Maskilim “by-passed” Mishnaic Hebrew and inclined to Biblical Hebrew. That was a time of awakening upon the part of the Jewish nation. It is quite customary that national inclinations go back to the glorious national past in order to nourish and fortify the budding nationality. Upon the part of the Jews, the biblical past was the very vertex of national might, thriving, and pride. When the Maskilim endeavored to revive Jewish nationality, they naturally went back to the biblical past and revived its language. That revival , however, was not only of the Hebrew language but of Hebrew literature as well (next to numerous fields of study from geography to...