Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Blain Nelson
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE RENASCENCE OF HEBREW LITERATURE(1743-1885)
Translated from the French
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The modern chapter in the history of Hebrew literature herewithpresented to English readers was written by Dr. Nahum Slouschz as histhesis for the doctorate at the University of Paris, and published inbook form in 1902. A few years later (1906-1907), the author himself puthis Essay into Hebrew, and it was brought out as a publication of theTushiyah, under the title Korot ha-Safrut ha-'Ibrit ha-Hadashah. The Hebrew is not, however, a mere translation of theFrench book. The material in the latter was revised and extended, andthe presentation was considerably changed, in view of the differentattitude toward the subject naturally taken by Hebrew readers, ascompared with a Western public, Jewish or non-Jewish.
The present English translation, which has had the benefit of theauthor's revision, purports to be a rendition from the French. But theHebrew recasting of the book has been consulted at almost every point,and the Hebrew works quoted by Dr. Slouschz were resorted to directly,though, as far as seemed practicable, the translator paid regard to theauthor's conception and Occidentalization of the Hebrew passagesrevealed in his translation of them into French.
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It was long believed that Hebrew had no place among the modern languagesas a literary vehicle. The circumstance that the Jews of Westerncountries had given up the use of their national language outside of thesynagogue was not calculated to discredit the belief. The Hebrew, it wasgenerally held, had once been alive, but now it belonged among the deadlanguages, in the same sense as the Greek and the Latin. And when fromtime to time some new work in Hebrew, or even a periodical publication,reached a library, the cataloguer classified it with theologic andRabbinic treatises, without taking the trouble to obtain information asto the subject of the book or the purpose of the journal. In point offact, in the large majority of cases they were far enough removed fromRabbinic controversy.
Sometimes it happened that one or another Hebraist was overcome withastonishment at the sight of a Hebrew translation of a mod