A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era: The Book of the Covenant of Pinhas Hurwitz and Its Remarkable Legacy

by David B. Ruderman

Overview

The history of a single book sheds light on the beginnings of modern Jewish thought

In 1797, in what is now the Czech Republic, Pinḥas Hurwitz published Book of the Covenant. Nominally an extended commentary on a sixteenth-century kabbalist text, Pinḥas’s publication was in fact a compendium of scientific knowledge and a manual of moral behavior. Its popularity stemmed from its ability to present the scientific advances and moral cosmopolitanism of its day in the context of Jewish legal and mystical tradition. Describing the latest developments in science and philosophy in the sacred language of Hebrew, Hurwitz argued that an intellectual understanding of the cosmos was not at odds with but actually key to achieving spiritual attainment.

In A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era, David Ruderman offers a literary and intellectual history of Hurwitz’s book and its legacy. Hurwitz not only wrote the book, but also was instrumental in selling it, and his success ultimately led to the publication of more than forty editions in Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. Ruderman provides a multidimensional picture of the book and the intellectual tradition it helped to inaugurate. Complicating accounts that consider modern Jewish thought to be the product of a radical break from a religious, mystical past, Ruderman shows how, instead, a complex continuity shaped Jewish society’s confrontation with modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295805597
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	12/01/2014
Series:	Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David B. Ruderman is Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of modern Jewish history at the University of Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

David Myers

A gripping read. . . . The book succeeds in making clear how important this largely forgotten late eighteenth-century book has been in modern Jewish cultural history.

Jonatan Meir

Of great interest—makes an important contribution to the understanding of Judaism in the modern period.

Editorial Reviews

"Brings us one step closer to a revision of modern Jewish intellectual history, providing us with a window into the myriad ways in which Jewish thought was transformed in modern Western life."

Association for Jewish Studies Review

"Brings a new perspective to considering the dimensions of Jewish modernity from the history of the book. . . . [Ruderman’s] exploration of book marketing as a markedly modern exercise should invite future scholars to conduct comparative research on the role of literary bestsellers in the shaping of modern Judaism."

Journal of Jewish Studies

A welcome addition to the growing fields of modern rabbinic history and Jewish print culture. . . . Ruderman’s work brings us one step closer to a revision of modern Jewish intellectual history, providing us with a window onto the myriad ways in which Jewish thought was transformed in modern Western life.

AJS Review - Eliyahu Stern

[E]ngaging. . . . [C]ompelling. . . . What emerges from Ruderman’s fresh and compelling analysis is the history of a book that was so popular perhaps because it had something for everyone.

American Historical Review - Shual Magid