Berlin,Saul Ktav-Yosher - The Beginning Of Satire In Hebrew Enlightenment In Germany

    Authors

    M. Pelli

    Comments

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    Keywords

    Humanities, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    Saul Berlin's contribution to Hebrew Haskalah literature has been reevaluated in the past twenty years, as part of the reassessment of Haskalah literature. His role as a creative writer and as an active participant in the Hebrew Enlightenment has been re-examined. Ktav Yosher, a small yet intensive satiric booklet, is one of Berlin's works which is the topic of this article. It was written in defense of Naphtali Herz Wessely's controversial Divrei Shalom Ve'emet, possibly in 1784, but it was published only posthumously in 1794. This study highlights the literary aspects of Ktav Yosher, analyzing its satiric modes. Ktav Yosher is delineated as a sophisticated work of art, where structure, satiric techniques, use of figurative language for satire, and the secularization of the sacred idiom are skillfully employed in order to present a critical and mocking view of contemporary Jewish society, the state of its culture and education. Berlin's satiric techniques are said to be uniquely Hebraic, in his mastery of the Hebrew language and in his clever use of the sacred textual sources, although some affinity with contemporary European satiric trends are noted as well.

    Journal Title

    Hebrew Union College Annual, Vol 64

    Volume

    64

    Publication Date

    1-1-1994

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    H33

    Last Page

    H57

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:A1994BB14N00010

    ISSN

    0360-9049

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