Baruch Jeitteles

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Baruch Jeitteles

Baruch (Benedikt) ben Jona Jeitteles (also: Jeiteles ; born April 22, 1762 in Prague ; † December 18, 1813 in Prague) was an enlightened rabbi , Talmud scholar, writer and doctor from Bohemia .

Life

Baruch Jeitteles was the eldest son of the doctor Jonas Jeitteles (1735-1806), and brother of the orientalist Juda Jeitteles (1773-1838). He had two other brothers, Gottlieb and Isaak Jeitteles. Baruch's son Ignaz Jeitteles (1783-1845) was an Austrian writer.

Contrary to the orthodoxy prevailing in Prague, Baruch Jeitteles was a follower of Moses Mendelssohn and his Enlightenment ( Haskala ). He encountered great resistance within the Prague Jewish community. Jeitteles ran a Talmud school and was a rabbi at the Klausen synagogue . As a liberal he was an opponent of Ezekiel Landau , who opposed all innovations , although he was his pupil. After he published an obituary for Landau in 1793, in which he referred to him as a tzaddik , the righteous, Jeitteles also came into conflict with the other enlighteners. His position changed over time from a more radical to a conservative enlightenment.

Jeitteles was involved in communal matters and advocated various modernizations. As a doctor, he promoted the establishment of hospitals in Prague after the Napoleonic battles of Kulm and Dresden, which left many wounded. During his personal social commitment he became infected with typhus and died in 1813. His grave is in the Old Jewish Cemetery Žižkov in Prague.

Works

  • Amude ha-Schaar. Prague 1785 (on Talmudic Problems)
  • Dibre Yosef ha-Sheni ha-Aaronim. Prague 1790 (translation from German)
  • Eme ha-baka. Prague 1793 (funeral speech for the death of Rabbi Jecheskel Landau)
  • Ha-Oreb. Vienna 1795 (supposedly published by Phinehas Hananiah Argosi ​​de Silva in Saloniki, but in reality by Jeitteles; deals with his dispute with Landau)
  • Siah ben Shenat. Prague 1800 (published anonymously and attributed to his brother Judah)
  • Taam ha-Melech. Brno 1801–03 (Commentary on Shaar ha-Melech by Isaak Nuñez Belmonte)
  • The cowpox vaccination. Prague 1804 (a lecture on smallpox vaccination)

Jeitteles also wrote Hebrew poems and epigrams that appeared in his brother Bene ha-Neurim . In 1794, translations of the fables of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and von Lichtwer from German into Hebrew were published in the magazine Ha-Meassef . German and Hebrew odes and elegies, as well as mourning and other speeches appeared in various magazines.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Jeitteles, Baruch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jeitteles, Baruch ben Jona; Jeitteles, Benedict ben Jona; Jeiteles, Baruch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rabbi, Talmudist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1813
Place of death Prague