Book of the Songs of Israel

Three Introductions to Psalms on Poetry, Translation, and Music by Joel Bril (Berlin 1791). a Bilingual Edition, Translated with Commentary and an Introduction
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-39894-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 77, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 658 g

Reihe: Studies in Jewish History and Culture

This annotated bilingual edition presents to readers for the first time a key Hebrew book of Jewish Enlightenment. Printed in Berlin in 1791, Joel Bril’s Hebrew introductions to Psalms constitute the earliest interpretation of Moses Mendelssohn’s language philosophy, translation theory, and aesthetics. In these introductions, Mendelssohn emerges as a critic of Maimonides who located eternal felicity not in union with the Active Intellect but in the aesthetic experience of the divine through sacred poetry. Bril’s theoretical insights, the broad range of his myriad textual sources, and his linguistic innovations make the Book of the Songs of Israel a touchstone of modern Hebrew literary theory and Jewish thought.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sela Teichler, Yael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Heilige & Traditionstexte: Torah, Talmud, Mischna, Halacha

Inhaltsverzeichnis

b>Acknowledgements

List of Figures and Maps

Abbreviations

Note on the Translation and Editorial Policy

Introduction

1 Sefer Zemirot Yisra’el: An Overview

2 Joel Bril (Löwe): An Inadvertent Innovator

3 Redemption through Translation

4 Translating Translation: The Making of the Book

5 Sefer Zemirot Yisra’el and the Emergence of the Haskalah Movement in Prussia

6 The Genre of Introduction in Maskilic Bible Translation

7 Bibliographic Sources, Textual Models, and Bril’s Critique

8 Against Idolatry: The Poiesis of Judaism in the Lyrical

9 Joel Bril as Scholar, Writer, Translator

10 The Dissemination and Subsequent Editions of Sefer Zemirot Yisra’el

11 Psalms and German Jewish Modernity: From the Songs of Israel to the National Poetry of the Jews

Joel Bril, Three Introductions to Psalms: Text, Translation, Commentary

Title Pages

Table of Contents

Index of the Picture Charts

First Introduction: On the Subject of Poetry in General and the Melitsah of Holy Scriptures in Particular

Second Introduction: The History of Song and Music in the Lands of the Hebrews, Their Uses and Their Accompanying Instruments

Third Introduction: [On the Songs Included in the Book of Psalms and the Order of Their Compilation]

Appendix 1: A Maskil’s Library: Joel Bril’s Bibliography

Appendix 2: Joel Bril as Translator: Glossary of Key Hebrew Terms

Appendix 3: The Dissemination of Sefer Zemirot Yisra’el (1785–1791)

Appendix 4: An Annotated List of Sefer Zemirot Yisra’el in Subsequent Editions and Manuscripts

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Yael Sela (D.Phil. Oxford 2010), Humboldt Research Fellow at Goethe University Frankfurt, has authored studies in modern German Jewish history, including The People of the Song: Biblical Poetry, Translation, and the Reception of Moses Mendelssohn in the Berlin Haskalah (Brill, forthcoming).