Letter from Felsenthal, B. to Morais, Sabato. Chicago, IL; Jul 1887
- Title
- Letter from Felsenthal, B. to Morais, Sabato. Chicago, IL; Jul 1887
- Date Created
- 5 July 1887
- Format
- 5 pages on 5 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 4, Folder 5
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3zg6gs4t/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3zg6gs4t
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx4FF5_27.xml
- content
-
450 W. Randolph St.
Chicago, July 5. 1887
Dr. S. Morais,
Philadelphia.
Dear and sincerely venerated friend:--
Most heartily do I thank you for your kind letter. It is time, there is that passage in the [Hebrew] to which Zunz referred, and which reads: [Hebrew] [Hebrew]. But Zunz referred to Sec. 557, and there I did not find that pass-age in the edition Frankfurt [?] Oder [Hebrew], 1783, before me. However in a letter of Dr. Bettelheim, Baltimore, which reached me this afternoon at the same time with yours, I was told to look in Sec. 603, and there I would find the sentence quoted above. In explanation B. wrote to me that 16 years ago Prof. Rosin, Breslau, published a special work on the [Hebrew], its author, its contents, &c., (a work which I do not possess,) and therein the professor set also forth that the later editions of the [Hebrew] are differing from the three earliest editions in their enumeration of the [Hebrew]. And as it was
2.
that Zunz, who no doubt had the editio princeps before him, referred to Sec. 557, while in my copy the passage is in Sec. 603. You, dear Dr., have now evidently a copy of one of the earlier editions in your possession (Venice 1523? or ib. 1600? or Amsterdam 1721?)
The book [Hebrew] to which you called my attention, I have never seen. The few extracts you quoted from it in your esteemed letter, are highly interesting. They are of the very few passages known to me which presuppose the existence somewhere of a biennial cycle in [Hebrew]. The whole matter [Hebrew]
Your questions, my dear friend and colleague--please permit me to address you as "my friend"--your questions regarding the origin and differentiation of the various manners and methods of the Reading of the Torah, of Dividing the same into Parshiyoth, of the selection of the Haftaroth, &c., can hardly be answered forthwith and within the limits of one letter; at least not by me. The subject is rich, and its study requires much time. The
3.
Guemara already offers very rich material. There is not only that well known passage: [Hebrew] [Hebrew] (Meg. 29, b.), from which we have to conclude that in Palestine they read the Torah in a Triennial cycle; there are also witnesses coming forward from whose testimony we must follow that the One-year-cycle was also not unknown. See, f. i., the Baraitha in Megillah 31, b: [Hebrew] [Hebrew] [Hebrew] There were in some congregations, in the times of the [Hebrew], evidently still other methods of [Hebrew] en vogue; so in some congregations they continued [Hebrew] where they had stopped on [Hebrew], and on the following Monday they continued where they had stopped on Saturday after-noon, &c., while in other congregations it was other=wise, similar to our present methods. It seems that not before the times of the [Hebrew] the methods of [Hebrew] became fixed and settled. However, as I said, the matter is a rich one, and I am not equipped enough that I could treat it "off-hand."
4.
And now permit me to ask you a question. Why will you not propose your questions to the readers--I mean to the scholars among the readers--of the Menorah? I have your consent already, dear friend and colleague, to publish your letter either entirely or parts thereof in the Menorah, and I intend to do it. But I would greatly prefer it, if you would send directly your questions to the Editor, Mr. Peixotto.
Believe me, if I sometimes write for one or the other of our periodicals, I do not do it for any impure motive. I do not do it to satisfy a childish vanity to see my name in print;--or in the belief that I am able [Hebrew]. I write because I am urged to do it by befriended editors. And as I must write, I think I should at least not offer such common thrash, as is mostly done by our Jewish papers,--"mostly", not by all. My query in the last number of the Menorah was also intended to induce some of our Rabbis and "Rabbis,"
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(there are two kinds of Rabbis,--Rabbis with and Rabbis without quotation marks) to turn their minds towards earnest studies, and not to squander their time entirely with [Hebrew], with hateful polemics [Hebrew], &c. &c.
But I must close now. I see, I am getting a garrulous old man, but you must pardon me.
Thanking you once more for your kind letter, I am remaining, dear Sir, yours truly B. Felsenthal - Identifier
- p3zg6gs4t
- identifier
- SMBx4FF5_27
Part of Letter from Felsenthal, B. to Morais, Sabato. Chicago, IL; Jul 1887
Felsenthal, B. and Morais, Sabato, “Letter from Felsenthal, B. to Morais, Sabato. Chicago, IL; Jul 1887”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed October 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/86351