Naftali heart Tur Sinai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai (Hebrew: "Fels des Sinai"; born on November 13, 1886 as Harry Torczyner in Lemberg , then Austria-Hungary , today Lviv , Ukraine , as the son of the merchant and Hebrew writer Isaac Eisig Torczyner from Brody; died October 17, 1973 in Jerusalem ) was a major Israeli Semitist and interpreter of the Bible . He is the creator of a German translation of the Tanach .

life and work

At the age of six he came to Vienna , where his father belonged to an enthusiastic Zionist group, went to school there and studied philology at the University of Vienna from 1905 to 1909 . He completed his studies with a doctorate to become a Dr. phil off. At the same time Tur-Sinai attended the Israelite Theological Institute of the Rabbinate in Vienna. After a short study stay in Berlin , where he studied Assyriology, among others with Friedrich Delitzsch , Tur-Sinai became a teacher at the Hebrew grammar school in Jerusalem, which he co-founded (1910–1912; in 1910 he met Eliezer Ben-Jehuda , the most important founder of the New Hebrews Language , who soon included him in his work), private lecturer for Semitic languages ​​at the University of Vienna (1912-1919), director of the Hebrew pedagogy he co-founded in Vienna (1918) and lecturer in biblical studies and Semitic philology at the university for the science of Judaism in Berlin (1919–1933). During this time, the first edition of his translation of the Hebrew Bible was made. From 1933 Tur-Sinai worked at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until the end of his life . As a professor of Hebrew he was considered one of the best experts on the Hebrew language in Israel after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. He provided the basis for the German-Hebrew dictionary (1927 Berlin, together with Simeon Menachem Laser; 15th edition Tel Aviv 1967) and also translated important writings of Achad Haʿam into German.

Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai was married to Malka Silberstein and had two children. With him, the era of the founding fathers, for whom the revival of the Hebrew language was a lifelong task, came to an end.

Bible translation

Tur-Sinai's translation of the Bible follows the so-called structurally faithful approach. The books are arranged according to the order of the Hebrew scriptures. As a connoisseur of the Talmud , Tur-Sinai was consciously guided by traditional Jewish interpretations when translating. For readers who are used to Christian translations, this results in readings that are sometimes surprising. Tur-Sinai comments on these readings and also justifies other translation decisions in the appendix to the print edition.

Excerpt from Genesis 4: 6–7:

The Eternal said to Cain : “Why is it annoying you, why is your face lowered? Whether you get the better part, whether not the better - towards the door, sin, crouching (or: "crouching at the wheat to sell out"), you must be hungry and you will rule it. "

Tur-Sinai's commentary (abridged):

“In addressing God to Cain, the translation leaves two options open, which are already reflected in the views of the Talmudic authorities Rab and Schemuel [...] that hattat does not refer to sin , but [...] grain , and only enables this knowledge it to recognize the so much misunderstood passage in its mind. Here […] God comforts Cain for the loss of the birthright [… with] that his brother […] will have to come to him […] at the time of famine. "

Other works / editions

  • Origin of the Semitic language type. A contribution to the problem of the origin of language. Loewit, Vienna 1916.
  • Job , 1920
  • The Ark of the Covenant and the Beginnings of the Religion of Israel , 1922
  • Collaboration with the Jewish Lexicon , 1927–1930
  • Co-editor of the great Encyclopedia Judaica (1927 ff; 1934 at volume 10, "L", broken off)
  • Bible translation 1935 ff.
  • The Holy Scriptures. Translated into German by Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai ; Holzgerlingen: Hänssler, 1993; ISBN 3775120408

Awards

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tur-Sinai, Naftali heart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harry Torczyner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli philologist and Bible interpreter
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv , then Austria, now Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 1973
Place of death Jerusalem