The Early Modern Yiddish Bible: From the Mirkevet ha-Mishneh to Blitz and Witzenhausen (1534–1686)

https://uzh.zoom.us/j/9413060862?pwd=ZGE3aVU0dGZGR2VXS1k2YWF6MW9zZz09

ID: 941 306 0862

Passcode: 697326

Lecturer: Morris M. Faierstein

M. M. Faierstein studied at the City College of New York, the Hebrew University, Yeshiva Pri Etz Hayyim (Jerusalem), Jewish Theological Seminary of America and received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary D.D. by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Language: English

Title: The Early Modern Yiddish Bible: From the Mirkevet ha-Mishneh to Blitz and Witzenhausen (1534–1686).

Abstract: The vernacular developed by the Jews living in the German-speaking lands was referred to as “Teutsch,” meaning translation. In the 18th century it began to be called Jüdisch-Deutsch (Jewish-German) and eventually received its modern name, Yiddish. However, unlike the earlier Bible translations, there is no significant tradition in the lands where German/Yiddish was spoken of translating the Torah or other parts of the Bible into the Jewish vernacular prior to the Early Modern period. Hebrew remained the language of the Bible and its study. There is a meager tradition of Yiddish biblical manuscripts, with the majority of the few surviving manuscripts dating from no earlier than the 15th century. Many of the surviving manuscripts are copies of published works from the 16th and even the 17th century. There has been no significant scholarship on this manuscript tradition. For this reason, this study will restrict itself to the printed Yiddish works from the Early Modern period relating to the Bible.