Israel Samosc

Israel Samosc (born 1700 in Bibrka ; died 1772 in Brody ; also Israel ben Mosheh ha-Levi ) was a German- Galician scholar. He commented on medieval classics of Jewish thought.

Life

Samosc grew up in a small Jewish community in what is now western Ukraine , where his father taught him the Talmud and Hebrew literature. Samosc began reading Hebrew writings on philosophy and mathematics early on .

In order to be able to study, Samosc left the poor community of Bibrka and settled in the town of the same name, Zamość . This was a rich city that had numerous libraries and was shaped by Sephardic Judaism , which was once recruited by the city's founder Jan Zamoyski (1542-1605). Here Samosc found friends, allies and students. Zamość later became a center of the early Haskala . In the following years, Samosc was able to acquire a broad but ancient knowledge in this environment, which he self-taught from reading mostly medieval Hebrew works. An exception was Joseph Delmedigo's Sefer Elim from 1629, to which he later referred positively. Furthermore, Aristotle and Ptolemy , whom he paid tribute to in Arubot ha-shamayim , the unpublished windows to heaven , were models of the early years. Samosc represented a geocentric worldview .

Samosc became known through Netsaḥ Yisra'el , the Eternity of Israel from 1737. In the form of classical Hebrew literature, it brought the Talmud together with contemporary scientific thought and the writings of Maimonides . Samosc judged that early passages of the Talmud can be reconciled with reason and truth. After the publication of Netsaḥ Yisra'el  , Samosc moved to Berlin in 1741 . He worked in Veitel-Heine Ephraim's school , taught Hebrew, natural sciences and Jewish philosophy and shaped the beginning Berlin Haskala. His most famous students include Aharon Zalman Gumpertz (1723–1769) and Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). In addition to teaching, Samosc began studying Christian Wolff's early work in Berlin . His engagement with Wolffianism shaped Ruaḥ ḥen  of 1741, a style-forming commentary on popular philosophy of the 13th century , which he used to legitimize enlightenment ideas and scientific knowledge about tradition and medieval authorities. Later Haskala authors copied the Samosc methodology.

The orthodox rabbis' suspicion led to an open conflict which forced Samosc to leave Berlin. He returned to his homeland, Gallizien, where he also lived in great poverty. In 1772 Samosc died in Brody .

meaning

Samosc judged sharply and clearly and was always interested in out-of-the-way topics. For example, he wrote about the "small animals" that could be seen in the man's semen through a microscope and that had remained undiscovered by the forefathers. The emerging method ideal of the natural sciences formed the framework of his literary work. Based on empirical evidence, Samosc broke with the authorities of his early works in later years. While he distanced himself from some of the ideas of Aristotle and Maimonides, Samosc, however, approached a classical and conservative physical worldview. This paradox is already being announced in Ruaḥ ḥen . The following posthumously published writings such as Otsar neḥmad,  a commentary on Yehudah ha-Levis Kuzari , and  Tuv ha-Levanon,  a commentary on Bahya ben Yosef ibn Pakudas  Ḥovot ha-levavot , are characterized by a radical conservatism. Nezed ha-dema , a bitter social criticism written in rhymed prose , was also published posthumously . Due to the complexity of the text and its varied references, subsequent generations of scholars led countless discussions about whether Samosc had denounced Hasidism or general social grievances.

Along with Ascher Worms , Salomon Hanau and Isaac Wetzler , who mainly moved in the Jewish “ internal discourse ” of the Enlightenment with Hebrew or Yiddish writings, Samosc is the protagonist of the early Haskala . Life and work have been forgotten.

Works (selection)

• Nezah Yisrael. Frankfurt on the Oder 1741.
• Yisrael. Frankfurt on the Oder 1741.
• Tob ha-Lebanon. Vienna 1809.
• Nezed ha-dema. Dyhernfurth 1773.

literature

• Gad Freudenthal: Hebrew Medieval Science in Zamość approx. 1730. The Early Years of Rabbi Israel ben Moses Halevy of Zamość . In: Resianne Fontaine, Andrea Schatz, Irene Zwei (eds.): Sepharad in Ashkenaz. Medieval Learning and Eighteenth-Century Enlightened Jewish Discourse , Amsterdam 2005.
• Gad Freudenthal: R. Israel Zamość's Encounter with Early Modern Science. The Subversive Commentary on Ruaḥ Ḥen and the Birth of a New Conservative . In: Robert Westman, David Baile (Eds.): Thinking Impossibilities: The Legacy of Amos Funkenstein , Toronto 2008.
• David B. Ruderman:  Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe . New Haven 1995, p. 332ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Gotthard Deutsch, Isaac Broydé: Israel ben Moses Ha-Levi of Zamosc. In: The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 10, 2017 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Gad Freudenthal: Zamość, Yisra'el ben Mosheh ha-Levi. In: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Christoph Schulte: On the debate about the beginnings of the Jewish Enlightenment . In: Journal of Religious and Intellectual History . tape 54 , no. 2 , 2002, p. 122-137 .