Rivka Horowitz, "Isaac Bernays: Kabbala and Myth"

On Kabbala and Myth in 19th Century Germany: Isaac BernaysAuthor(s): Rivka HorwitzSource: Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 59 (1993), pp. 137-183Published by: American Academy for Jewish ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622715Accessed: 07/05/2010 13:56

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ON KABBALA AND MYTH IN 19TH CENTURY GERMANY: ISAAC BERNAYS

BY RIVKA HORWITZ

A. Introduction

The description of modern German Jewry, Mendelssohn, the Enlightenment, the Haskalah, the Science of Judaism and the Reform and Orthodox Movements, undoubtedly reflect the crucial events of the Emancipation. However, there were also counter attempts of which very little is known. These include persons who opposed the Enlightenment because their alle- giance to the past was so great that they did not want to adapt themselves to rational trends; or that they wished to revive and understand the past under the influence of German Romanti- cism. Generally speaking, in that period, there were numerous persons who did not fit into normally accepted categories, and it would therefore be advisable to consider the spiritual history of German Jewry in a more pluralistic and complex manner.

We should take into consideration some of those who did not follow the general trend. One of the leading Kabbalists in Frankfurt/M, Rabbi Nathan Adler, who died in 1800, was the teacher of several rabbis who were involved in the revival of the mystical past. There were also others who appreciated the past and its values. During the period of the great poet and philosopher, Goethe, who showed an appreciation of Kabbalistic metaphysical speculations, Rabbi Herz Scheuer of Mainz (1754-1822) tried to strengthen Jewish mysticism and favored pietism and asceticism. He headed a yeshiva and ordained

' See Werner J. 0 nnman, "Schelling and the New Thinking of Judaism" in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research XLVIII (1981), 1-55.

138 RIVKA HORWITZ [2]

many rabbis both for France and Germany, and wrote a kabbalistic work on ethics, Tore Zahav which the famous Kabbala scholar Gershom Scholem described as the last kabbalistic publication in Germany.2 Scheuer was one of the few rabbis who not only refused to officiate as a salaried rabbi but who also gave up his rabbinical position to avoid becoming a member of Napoleon's Consistoire (1807-1814).3 In his kabbalistic interpretation of the Song of Songs, which is based to a great extent upon the Zohar, he advocates saintliness and the "slaying of the evil inclination."

A younger student from Mainz, a child prodigy, was Cha- cham Isaac Bernays (1792-1849). He was almost overlooked by Scholem in connection with Kabbala in Germany perhaps because Scholem considered his writings as that of many "German authors who occupied themselves in their German literary activity with kabbalistic motifs without being a Kabbal- ist in the true sense of the word." 4 He was no doubt one of the greatest minds of his time. Later in his life he was described as being exceptional for his unusual knowledge of talmudic and rabbinic learning and for being a charismatic speaker.

He had a wide knowledge of languages, both living and dead, and was well versed in the philosophers and poets of all ages. He possessed an encyclopedic mind. In the eulogy published in Der Orient5 Chacham Berays is described as a meteor, an extraor-

2 The yeshiva existed until his death in 1822. See G. Scholem "Die letzte Kabbalisten in Deutschland, in Studien zur judischer Mystik, Judaica III, Frankfurt/M, 1973, p. 233.

3 See the biographical introduction to Tore Zahav, Mainz, 1875, written by his grandson, Shmuel Bondi, especially p. 14. Scheuer did not want to take part in sending young Jews to the French army which meant that he would be instrumental in their desecration of Jewish laws.

4 See G. Scholem, "Die letzten Kabbalisten in Deutschland" pp. 223 and 227. He is briefly mentioned by Scholem in comparison with Hirschfeld "Ein Verschollener jidischer Mystiker" in YL BI, VII p. 249.

5 Der Orient No. 50 (1849), p. 218, written by Moses Mendelsohn. See also Sulamith, Year 7, Vol. 2 (1826), p. 156.

ISAAC BERNAYS: KABBALA AND MYTH

dinary phenomenon among orthodox Jews and a scientist by nature. It also states that Bernays had remained, throughout his life, faithful to the philosophy of Schelling, the Talmud, Biblical Exegesis and the Kabbala. He was known for his broad-minded- ness, for considering problems in comparative mythology and religion, and for seeking solutions to the question of religious spirituality in the world.

Our intention here is to describe the kabbalistic views of Chacham Bernays, but since he published no books and the two treatises of Der Bibel'sche Orient were published anonymously, we must first consider the debate among scholars as to whether Bernays actually wrote these two treatises. Our first task is to try and solve the question regarding the authorship of the Bi- bel'sche Orient, and then to describe the nature of its historiosophy, before coming to our central theme: the place of Kabbala in his work.

B. Bernays and the Bibel'sche Orient

Bernays' education went through various stages. Initially, in Mainz, he studied the Talmud in the manner then accepted in the yeshivot, first with Rabbi Hayim Zevi Berliner and later, most likely with Rabbi Herz Scheuer. Yet Scheuer's pietism was not what Bernays sought since Scheuer was not open to reading and studying the writings of secular authors.

The decisive stage of Bernays' education was in Wurzburg where he arrived in 1816 at the age of twenty-four. He was an outstanding student at the yeshiva and became friendly with Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger who remained one of his closest friends throughout his life. Ettlinger became the rabbi of Altona. Bernays received his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Bing.6 In contrast to Rabbi Scheuer and Rabbi Wolf Hamburg of Furth, Bing was not opposed to secular studies.7 He allowed his

6 Duckesz "Zur Biographie des Chacham Isaak Bernays" in Jahrbuch der Jidischen Literarischen Gesellschaft, 5, Frankfurt/M, 1907, p. 298.

7 Wolf Hamburg believed that the Messiah would come in 1840. He was a friend of the kabbalist, Rabbi Herz Scheuer of Mainz, the author of Tore Zahav;

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yeshiva students to combine Talmud with university learning8 which subsequently became an accepted practice among Ger- man Jewry.

At the University of Wurzburg where he studied classical philology and oriental languages, Bernays attended the lectures of Johann Jakob Wagner and Arnold Kanne who were great scholars in mythology and followers of Schelling. In 1817 Bernays published a review of Gesenius' Handworterbuch in the Neue Theologische Annalen.9 It is surprising that D. Ludwig Wachler of Breslau, the editor of the journal, was ready to publish a review of a Jew of Wurzburg attacking Wilhelm Gesenius and criticizing many of the fundamental views of a celebrated scholar of Christian biblical studies and a professor of theology at the important Prussian Friedrich University of Halle. It could be that Bernays was supported by his teachers at the University of Wurzburg, yet his criticism which is based on vast Jewish and general learning was bold and expressed deep Jewish pride.

his book Alon Bakhut, a eulogy on the Mishnah related to Scheuer's death, expresses bitter complaints against modernism.

8 On Bernays' education, see Cahnman (note 1, above), p. 7. There is evidence that Eliezer Bergman, a contemporary of Bernays, also studied at the University of Wurzburg (see Eliezer Bergman, Be'har Yeraeh, Jerusalem, 1975, p. 24). This was also the case with the ethnographer, Yehosef Schwarz, the author of Tevuoth Ha'aretz, who studied both in the yeshiva and at the university around 1822 (see the Introduction to Tevuoth Ha'aretz by E. Shiller, Jerusalem, 1979, p. 1).

9 This article was only recently brought to the attention of scholars by S.Z. Leiman, whom I wish to thank for bringing it to my attention. The review was published by Ludwig Wachler in Breslau, who was the editor, and was printed by the Hermann bookstore of Frankfurt/M in Vol. I. pp. 180-195 and was signed: Isaac Bernays in Wurzburg. The full name of the review is "Neues hebraisch-deutsches Handworterbuch uber das alte Testament mit Einschluss des biblischen Chaldismus. Ein Auszug aus dem grosseren Werke in vielen Artikeln desselben umgearbeitet vornehmlich fur Schulen von Wilhelm Gese- nius, Doctor u. ord. Professor der Theologie aus der k. Preussischen Friedrichs Universitat zu Halle. Leipzig, 1815."


Bernays' interest was to defend the Massoretic text, a matter which recurs later in the Bibel'sche Orient. 1 He rejects the facile attempts at emendation which appeared to him as resulting from a lack of knowledge or lack of respect for the Massora. He criticized Gesenius for being ready to exclude any extraordinary or difficult grammatical forms as errors or as the result of Arabic influence. Bernays defended the ancient Hebrew grammarians and specifically the Massora, and questioned whether Gesenius had consulted ancient manuscripts of the Bible in his studies. He was disturbed by the fact that Gesenius had allowed himself to list forms which he believed to have extraordinary punctuation as mistakes. Bernays considered that Gesenius' aim was to undercut the foundation upon which the ancient Jewish grammarians had built.

A few years later, in 1819, Bernays went to Munich where he joined the house of the Bavarian Court agents, Jacob and Salomon Hirsch1 as cantor, tutor and secretary. During this period Bernays received a half-year furlough from them to enable him to attend the lectures of Schelling and Jacobi in Munich. Once again, rabbinical permission was granted for this by Rabbi Bing. The desire to study the roots of pagan etymology within ancient Hebrew and the great interest in the Hebrew language was connected with the romantic belief that it was the source of all other languages, a position which Schelling advo- cated.

In Munich Bernays also formed a friendship with the theologian J.A. von Kalb and an intimate relationship developed between them. Bernays was a young Jewish student without any social standing and thirsty for knowledge, whereas Kalb was much older, a professor in a gymnasium, and an enlightened

10 See Bibel'sche Orient II, 47 on the Massora and on the modern grammarians since Spinoza (B.O. II, 63ff) where it mentions Schultens, Michaelis, Eichhorn, De Wette, and Gesenius.

l On the Hirsch of Gereuth family, see Joseph Prijs, Die Familie Hirsch aus Gereuth, Munich, 1931.

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person who knew Hebrew and wanted to improve mankind. He was a Catholic theologian who had turned Protestant, expressed good will towards the Jews, and had a very low opinion of Catholic clericalism. Kalb published a free translation of Spino- za's Theological-Political Treatise with an Introduction and Notes.12 The book was confiscated by the police because of its attack on the Pope and Catholicism. Kalb's Introduction and Notes to that work are of great importance since they reveal his spiritual world and his line of thinking at the time he befriended Bernays.

The fact that Kalb was asked to recommend Bernays for his rabbinic position in Hamburg13 was a highly unusual matter. Kalb's letter of recommendation which has been preserved is a very revealing document. It describes Bernays' arrival in Munich and also his zest and spiritual powers which made an enormous impression upon Kalb. He reports that their first conversation lasted for five hours after which they became intimate friends.

They realized that they shared many common areas of interest. Kalb relates in that document the important fact that "We met for four to five hours daily over a period of half a year." 14

Kalb praises Bernays not only as a sage but as a human being, and expresses appreciation of his good character. He was told that Bernays was a noted Talmud scholar and thoroughly familiar with all periods of Jewish literature. "Though I am a Christian theologian" he writes in his letter of recommendation, "I can also judge Jewish theology."15 Kalb admired Ber- nays not only as a master of Jewish knowledge but for his ability to relate it to world history and world politics to an extent that

12 Dr. J.A. Kalb, Theologisch-Politische Abhandlunaen von Spinoza, Freye Ubersetzung und mit Anmerkungen begleitet, Munich, 1826.

13 For Kalb's recommendation, see E. Duckesz (note 6, above), p. 298. See also Hans I. Bach, "Der Bibel'sche Orient und sein Verfasser" in Zeitschrift far Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Vol. 7 (1937), pp. 26ff.

14 Duckesz, p. 300. 15 Duckesz, ibid.



Kalb had rarely found among Christian savants, to say nothing of Jewish ones.

In his Introduction to Spinoza, Kalb alluded to Bernays when he wrote: "one of the greatest Jewish masters (as evidenced by the position which he holds today) told me three years ago [this was written in 1823] when I explained to him a certain point in the New Testament: look (the Talmud was in front of us) for a long time I have noticed that here the Talmud chatters (schwazt), yet how or why it does so I can only now realise; thus each party seeks to hide the truth from itself and from the other." 16

This description by Kalb explains the type of relationship that existed between them. The two appear to have been discussing parallels between the Talmud and the New Testa- ment and had both texts laid out side-by-side before them. Bernays probably showed Kalb parallels of the New Testament in the Talmud. While Kalb, as an enlightened Christian, wanted to understand the Jewish sources of Christianity, Bernays is described as being sceptical, thinking that every side interprets things for itself in its own way and hides the truth.

At the end of September 1820 Der Bibel'sche Orient: A Journal in Irregularly Appearing Issues appeared anonymously published by Fleischmann of Munich and bearing the date 1821. It was composed of two thin pamphlets, together num- bering 130 pages. Attached to the first pamphlet one reads: "First announcement May 1820." Three or four pamphlets were planned, but on account of obstacles only two appeared. The preface was written in Munich. Twice by mistake, the date of the pamphlet reads: 1812.17

Hans Bach, who considered Der Bibel'sche Orient as a major work of the early 19th century, wrote a detailed study on the authorship of the Bibel'sche Orient and a biography of I.

16 Kalb, Spinoza, p. xxi. 17 Bach, p. 14.

[7] 143

Bernay's son, Jacob Bernays,'8 who was one of the greatest scholars of the 19th century. Bach thought that because of its pompous style and difficult language the Bibel'sche Orient was not attractive to the public.19 It was never translated into any other language, nor did it appear in any additional edition; it was left in obscurity. The question is, why was that brilliant work so ill received. It was read by scholars, but it was certainly not a book for the general public.

Another reason for the lack of wider interest in this publication might have been the result of the double message reflected in different parts of the book. At times one thinks that the author is most likely Kalb who considers Judaism as an outsider and lays stress on matters that are significant for an enlightened Christian, and at times it appears as though the message of the book is Jewish and expresses most likely the spirit of Bernays.

The controversy over its authorship began in 1821 when the work was published. Some thought it was Kalb's and others thought it was Bernays', and there were scholars who made other suggestions such as Wolf Heidenheim. All these opinions, many of which were based on personal impressions and not on historical evidence, were reviewed by Hans Bach in his erudite article on Bernays: "DerBibel'sche Orient und sein Verfasser".20

It seems that the most important historical proof on which one can rely is from Bernays' teacher at the University of Wiirzburg, Johann Jacob Wagner, who taught Bernays mythology and philology and who was close in spirit to the subject treated in the Bibel'sche Orient, and who therefore had a personal interest in discovering the identity of its author. Wagner was also acquainted with the other potential author, von Kalb. Immediately upon receiving the Bibel'sche Orient from a friend in Munich, Wagner tried to find out who wrote

18 See Bach's article (note 13 above) and his book Jacob Bernays, Tubingen, 1974.

19 Bach, p. 16. 20 Bach, pp. 26ff.


[9] ISAAC BERNAYS: KABBALA AND MYTH 145

this work. Wagner had a high opinion of Bernays from the time that he was his student and he quotes an interpretation of his in relation to Hebrew grammar as well as midrashic interpretation of it in one of his books.21

In a letter dated April 10, 182122 written after receiving the Bibel'sche Orient, Wagner states that he considers Bernays to be the author of that work. He thought that it must have been written by a Jew because of its inner Jewish interest.23 However, the friend who sent him the book from Munich notified him that the book was not written by Bernays. Two weeks later, on

April 25, 1821, Wagner wrote that after further inquiries he found out that Kalb was the author, but that he was certain that there had been considerable collaboration between Kalb and

Bernays. There were etymological references in the Bibel'sche Orient

that Wagner had heard from Bernays and other ideas such as that Moses was more important than Christ which had been mentioned in a letter sent to him by Kalb in response to

Wagner's criticism of his recent book. Wagner thought that Kalb approved of the connection between the religion of Moses and Christianity. Wagner's assumption that this work was composed in collaboration between these two authors seems to

21 See J.J. Wagner, Religion Wissenschaft Kunst und Staat in ihren gegen- seitigen Verhaeltnissen betrachtet, Erlangen, 1819. Wagner speaks of a Jewish scholar, B. who studied Ancient History with him and to whom he is grateful for several interpretations of the religion of Moses and the Talmud. He quotes an interpretation by Berays on Numbers 12:6-7 where the prophecy of Moses is called "mar'eh" and that of the other prophets called "mar'ah". The first is in the masculine form and the second in the feminine, alluding to the fact that the prophecy of Moses was active and that of the other prophets passive.

22 J.J. Wagner, Lebensnachrichten und Briefe, Ulm, 1849, pp. 295ff. 23 Wagner found "an anti-Christian anger" in the book, perhaps referring to

the Bibel'sche Orient II, p. 43 where the Christian adoration of Jesus appears to the author as pagan.

me to be based on historical evidence and linguistic proof.24 I think that the etymology, mythology and internal Jewish aspects were the contribution of Bernays while the philosophy of history, Paul, the anti-halakhic spirit and the extreme universalism must have been that of Kalb. Since Bernays said that he did not write the Bibel'sche Orient but did not deny having any connection with it, it would be fair to assume that the actual writing was done by Kalb.

The book is probably the outcome of the conversations held when Bernays and Kalb were both interested in comparative religion and which led to their collaboration. When asked whether he was the author of that work Bernays neither con- firmed nor denied it, probably because he was only a collabora- tor. The fact that the Bibel'sche Orient appeared a few months after the period when Bernays and Kalb met 4-5 hours daily for half a year is very significant. Certain parts of the Bibel'sche Orient fit in with what we know about Bernays. The book was written at a time when Jews generally had no permission to reside in Munich and study there, so that it would be hard to ascribe it to a third person. The book also reflects Bernays' extraordinary erudition in ancient languages, mythology, Tal- mud, medieval literature and Kabbala. It is inconceivable that a non-Jew would be concerned with internal Jewish matters and speak about "our Friedlander" in allusion to the recently founded Jewish Reform Movement.25

The ideas which Bernays and Kalb agree upon are as follows: 1) Biblical ethical monotheism is important for the whole of mankind. 2) The way to recognize biblical ethical monotheism is not through dogma or reason but by a romantic mythic- philological approach. 3) Major emphasis is laid on spiritualization and internalization, and in this way the book recognizes

24 This conclusion was also reached by Professor Mordechai Breuer, perhaps for reasons other than mine. We discussed the Bibel'sche Orient a number of times and I wish to thank him.

25 Bibel'sche Orient II, 22.



the importance of Philo and the Kabbala. 4) There is an appreciation of both religions - Judaism and Christianity. 5) Both authors appreciated Kabbala because of their own inward inclinations.

There is both a Jewish as well as a Christian Kabbala. But it would be difficult to assume that Bernays, who had studied at yeshivot (especially under Abraham Bing, a disciple of the kabbalist rabbi Nathan Adler, and under Herz Scheuer) would quote Kabbala from Christian sources such as Buxdorf and Reuchlin26 and also mention the Martinists, the French Free- masons.27 It is easier to assume that Kalb knew the Kabbala from Christian sources and that Bernays had added Jewish authors such as Nahmanides and the like.28 It is most likely that Christian Kabbala expressed Kalb's line of thought while an appreciation of Yehuda Halevi and Nahmanides expressed Bernays'. One cannot find a consistent approach in the book. The book proposes theories which are close to Christianity and others which are close to Judaism. To begin with the latter, there are certain attacks on the Reformists as de-spiritualized esthetes, followers of "the elegant pupil of the philosophy of Leibniz and Wolff [alluding to Mendelssohn] ... ashamed of their own past, preferring to jump gallantly over the outdated boundaries of the law, like foundlings of the present ... rather than to listen to what God has done" (according to Num. 23:28).29

One also finds the opinion that Judaism is the atlas of the world carrying the whole of world history.30 This idea is close to what one finds in the Kuzari and to the idea developed by modern Jewish liberal movements that advocate the mission of Israel and the blessings of being dispersed. There are sections of this work in which one finds an appreciation for the Talmud,

26 Bibel'sche Orient II, 61. 27 Bibel'sche Orient II, 46. 28 Bibel'sche Orient II, 45, 54. 29 Bibel'sche Orient II, 54-55. 30 Bibel'sche Orient I, 65.

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the Commandments and an opposition to dogmas.31 Yet one also finds parts of the Bibel'sche Orient which are alien to Judaism and are voiced as though from an outsider's viewpoint. There is a denial of the divine origin of Halakha and an expression of the idea that "the beginning of the Oral Law was not by the the decision of God who dwells between the Cheru- bim but by human resolution." 32 This sentence could have been an expression of a free thinker, but since it is taken from a long section which favors Christianity, it most likely reflects Kalb's views.

In order to gain further support for my position I shall have to describe some of the opinions found in the Bibel'sche Orient.33 According to those sections, during the period of the Second Commonwealth there were two types of Jews - those who followed the Halakha and were national-minded, and those who tended towards symbolism and were universalists. The first are related to the Land of Israel, the Aramaic language and the development of Judaism in Babylon, while the second are related to mysteries and spiritualization of Hellenism and Egypt.

In contrast with Jewish tradition which attributes the found- ing of the Oral Law to Ezra the Scribe who is seen as the link in the chain between prophecy and rabbinism, one finds in the Bibel'sche Orient a negation of Ezra, the Magna Ecclesia (the Great Synagogue), the Pharisees and the Aramaic language. There is an appreciation for the period of the First Temple and the claim that after its destruction and the loss of the Urim and Thumim as well as other concrete symbols of the ancient religion, there remained nothing for the Jewish people except the Torah which they no longer understood.

It is as though the author of the Bibel'sche Orient wishes to separate the Jews of the Second Commonwealth from the more

31 Bibel'sche Orient II, 48. 32 Bibel'sche Orient II, 4. 33 Particularly Bibel'sche Orient II, 3-33.

148 [12] RIVKA HORWITZ


ancient people of Israel. The former are even called the "Ara- maic" people for whom the Torah of Moses had become an empty, dead letter. Out of the need to inspire the soul of the people, their leaders strengthened religious worship. The author criticizes the Magna Ecclesia for adding knots to the ancient rope of love which had led the people of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to the land of Canaan. Those knots which could no longer be unravelled were all of human invention. Ezra and his successors had invented many laws which were solely of nationalistic importance. They introduced regulations which they preached every Sabbath before the people and numerous novelties were superimposed upon the original body of religious beliefs. They led the people away from the truth and devised many restrictions so as to prevent any external influence on them to accept a symbolic approach to religion.

The author dwells on these two directions:34 the first is the ancient, universal spirit which breezes out from the Garden of Eden and which appears as the source of Christianity; and the other is the spirit of Judaism which is connected with the Aramaic language and Babylon. The people were told by their preachers that if they neglected the Commandments, their country would be destroyed as indeed happened when Jerusa- lem was conquered by Pompey.35 It seems that despite the very enlightened approach of the author, the dichotomy between spirit and matter, between universalism and nationalism, which is so prevalent in Christian interpretation is becoming dominant here.

As an example of that approach I quote the Bibel'sche Orient: "In learned minds, the knowledge of the Idea [of God] would, of course, finally weaken the religiosity of these acts which have symbolic significance only on the national level. Inner spiritual awareness would win precedence over legalistic observance. For pious natures, on the other hand, which had a need for

34 Bibel'sche Orient II, 8. 35 Bibel'sche Orient II, 11.

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external religious life, this spiritualization of practical observance had such a strong effect that they began brooding over the most scrupulous details of the commandments and kept strictly to them." 36

The author values internal spirituality over national commandments. He does not seem to think that the Command- ments endow the Jew with anything beyond a national religion which is interested in ensuring the survival of the Jewish people in their own land. He sees no cosmic dimension to Judaism, and portrays the dichotomy that exists between the religion of acts concerned with nationalism, legalism, external forms and that of pure spirituality. In these sections of the Bibel'sche Orient there is no appreciation for the Commandments. The author nevertheless admits that the God of Israel is the God of Christianity, the God who became a cosmic idea which is of universal importance for the whole world.

Jewish critics who wrote about the Bibel'sche Orient did not dwell on such problems. Hans Bach even compared the book with parallel passages by Kalb in his Introduction and Notes to Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise,37 judaized the Bibel'sche Orient and concluded that this was the work of a "yeshiva student" which showed national Jewish pride. He believed that the author accepted the Halakha, that he was a mystic and a free thinker, but defines him nevertheless as "a conservative Jew." 38

Isaak Heinemann, an ardent follower of the Breslau historical school which believed in a dynamic approach to Judaism, closely followed Bach's line of thought and quotes one note in which Bernays speaks of the dynamic internalization of Juda- ism.39 Heinemann assumed that the book expressed a national

36 Bibel'sche Orient II, 27. 37 Bach, p. 29. 38 Bach, pp. 15 and 45. 39 Heinemann quotes the Bibel'sche Orient II, 49 and the Note on that page.

See Isaac Heinemann, "The Relation between S.R. Hirsch and his teacher Isaac Bernays" [in Hebrew] Zion 16 (1951), 57.



Jewish approach, although he admits that the book transmits contradictory messages by praising both narrow nationalism and universalism. As a great admirer ofYehuda Halevi, Heine- mann applauds the nationalistic views which he found in the book, the love for the Hebrew language and the dynamic approach to Halakha which brings it close to his own historical school of thought. He does this in spite of the fact that the book speaks of Rabbi Paulus40 and that the author envisions an age when Halakha will be spiritualized and universal. In that section of the Bibel'sche Orient Jesus is called "the free thinker" - Freysinningen - who tried to "shake up and unsettle the spirit of the people which had become rigid in its praxis."41

The approach of Bach and Heinemann appeat to be problematic in claiming that the Bibel'sche Orient is "doubtless a Jewish book" although Bach himself admits that the author trespasses beyond the limitations of Judaism by making it so extremely universal, referring to the phrase which speaks of "the universal blend of mankind in ideal ways." 42

Heinemann, in his very learned approach, admits that there are many internal contradictions in that work43 and believed that there were two opposing trends in the book for which no conclusive resolution could be found. He also admits that the comparison made by the author between the persecution of Spinoza by the Jews and the suffering of Christ could hardly be found to have any parallel in the writings of an orthodox Jew.

Although Heinemann's point of departure was Wagner and Kanne whom he had read carefully as preparation for his

40 Bibel'sche Orient II, 32ff. 41 Bibel'sche Orient II, 31. 42 Bibel'sche Orient II, 46. 43 In his article in Zion, pp. 75-56 (see note 39 above) Heinemann speaks of

an "internal revelation of the Shekhina" a term which I could not find in the Bibel'sche Orient. Heinemann considers the work of Bernays as obscure. The harsh language of the author used in reference to the Ecclesia Magna surprises him and he resolves this by the fact that the author attacks Maimonides as well. Heinemann also finds it difficult that the author appreciates Kabbala more than Halakha. See the Bibel'sche Orient II, 48.

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research on the subject, he saw that the Bibel'sche Orient was very different from the opinion of those learned professors from Wirzburg. Heinemann did not consider Kalb as a serious alternative and did not quote him. Therefore he did not realize that Kalb had an approach to Christianity which was similar to that of the Bibel'sche Orient. Nor did he mention that there were sections in the book which were based on the New Testament, on the Pauline division between the letter and the spirit of the law quoted from the Epistle to the Romans 2:29, or the division between Adam in flesh and Adam in spirit from Romans 5:14.

According to the Bibel'sche Orient Paul saw that the spirit of the Pharisees had penetrated deep into the soul of the people, and that they believed in a political Messiah who would renew the sacrifices.44 He therefore did two things: he encouraged a small group of Jews to separate themselves from the nation, and he showed them the universal meaning of Christ's martyrdom. And so by the death of "that Man" which was bound to the law, and by his ascension to Heaven, the Man of the spirit was born. Paul therefore denied the letter and preferred the spirit.

Apparently the story of the meeting between Moses, Elijah and Jesus on a lofty mountain was one which Kalb liked. It appears in the Bibel'sche Orient as well as in Kalb's Introduc- tion and Notes to Spinoza. This story is repeated several times in the New Testament.45 In the Bibel'sche Orient all three are called "reformers," a term which may express Protestant tendencies (the same term is also applied in the book to Abraham) and here he refers to "the legend of Christ who spoke to Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor."46 In his book on Spinoza, Kalb

44 Since it is assumed today that Paul died in Rome in 62 C.E., several years before the destruction of the Temple and the cessation of the sacrifices, the author's suggestion here has no historical foundation.

45 See Mark 9:1-12 and its parallels in Matthew 17:1-13 and Luke 9:39. 46 In the New Testament the name of the mountain is not mentioned, but it

makes its appearance in the later commentators such as Eusebius. See John Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades, Jerusalem, 1977, p. 173.



quotes that story and speaks of the consultation of Christ with Elijah and Moses, his transfiguration and the three figures becoming one.47

The hardest question of all is why did the Bibel'sche Orient use the title "Rabbi Paulus" presenting Paul as one of the Jewish sages? And why did it claim that Paul's teachings to the world were Jewish teachings? This is a matter which experts in Christianity such as David Flusser finds as unique in Christian literature and appear to be an original idea of the author.48 One of the proofs that Kalb was indeed the author of the Bibel'sche Orient is the fact that one finds in his Notes to Spinoza the term "Rabbi Paulus."49 It seems no less problematic that Christ is called the "free thinker" as though he were a liberal, an attribute which was most likely well received in the period of the Emancipation and the Enlightenment. Both titles, rabbi for Paul and free thinker for Jesus, are quite extraordinary.

The Bibel'sche Orient recognizes two ways to God: the Christian and the Jewish.50 Paul wished "to denigrate the Jews and to unify a small group of Essenes with the pagan world." It is conceivable that the interpretation developed by the Bi- bel'sche Orient implying that Rabbi Paulus had found a way in the Talmud to free the world of Halakha originates from an interpretation given to Moses Mendelssohn's response to La- vater51 which was very famous in those years. As we know, the Talmud distinguishes between the Jews and the Pious among the Nations, although both have a share in the world to come. Moses Mendelssohn, the famous Jewish philosopher of the

47 Compare Bibel'sche Orient II, p. 39 and Kalb, Spinoza, Introduction, p. xviii and p. 369.

48 I wish to thank Professor David Flusser for reading the Bibel'sche Orient and taking an interest in my work.

49 Kalb, Spinoza, p. 262. 50 Bibel'sche Orient II, p. 34. 51 Moses Mendelssohn, "Letter to Lavater" in M. Mendelssohn, Jerusalem

and Other Jewish Writings, trans. by A. Jospe, New York, 1969, p. 117 and Notes 46-47.

Enlightenment, uses those rabbinical thoughts to distinguish between Judaism and the natural universal religion which can be attained through reason and which is based upon monotheistic ethics identified with the seven Noachide laws.

According to Mendelssohn, both the Jews and the followers of natural religion have a share in the world to come, but the Jews are still obliged to keep the Covenant of Sinai, the revealed legislation incorporating the 613 laws, while the Pious of the Nations are obliged to keep merely those seven Noachide laws. Christianity is, according to Mendelssohn, not to be considered a rational, natural religion, but is a lower type of religion based upon myth.

In the Bibel'sche Orient Paul thinks that those who cannot do otherwise should keep the Commandments, but that the Pious among the Nations should keep the Noachide laws and will receive their share in the world to come. The Bibel'sche Orient quotes the Talmud (San. 71a) and proposes a theory very similar to that of Mendelssohn, only that here the Christians are the pious ones who keep the Noachide laws!

Kalb, in his Notes on Spinoza, thinks that the Christians should keep a purified religion. The Bibel'sche Orient refers the very same quotations that Mendelssohn cites and adds another saying of the Talmud that the Mosaic Commandments will undergo a metamorphosis and "the commandments shall be abrogated in the time to come."52

One finds in both the Bibel'sche Orient and in Kalb's Notes on Spinoza a desire to change the Halakha and make it universal. There is sympathy towards the Halakha which the author sees as assuming the form of the seven Noachide laws. And

52 'Mitzvot btelot le'atid lavo', Bibel'sche Orient II, p. 31 and in Talmud, Nida 6 la; the meaning in the context of the Talmud is that the dead are free of the commandments. The saying is quoted in the name of the Amora Rabbi Yosef (320-375 C.E.). See W.D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount, Cambridge, 1966, vol. I, p. 181.



it appears as though this new law comes to replace the Jewish Halakha.s3

In his Notes on Spinoza, Kalb speaks of the hope of a covenant between Jews and Christians. According to him, the Jews should not give up the Talmud but merely the casuistic style, the pilpul. Judaism should preserve Halakha in its pure form.54

At the end of the Bibel'sche Orient there is a section which considers a certain unity between Moses and Jesus." Here it states that the principle of the Law "which first appeared in the burning bush had then to reveal itself to the whole of mankind by recognizing the value of brotherly love. This was exemplified through this people out of whom that Man had come to prepare the way for the world-wide rule of divine providence." It all began in pre-historical times, in Adam Kadmon, and this beginning also included world ideas and etymology. Paganism was expelled and new meaning was given to words "for the salvation of mankind that has to restore itself in the One who shines clearly." 56

The idea that Christ universalizes Jewish law as the eternal and necessary truth, removing it from its national sphere and offering it to all mankind, is the central theme of the Bibel'sche Orient and of Kalb's line of thought.57

In his Introduction58 Kalb discusses the necessary relation between Judaism and Christianity: "Judaism and Christianity are related to each other." He appreciates the fact that Spinoza considered Christianity somewhat higher than Judaism and wrote that "one has to feel the high reputation of Christ as Spinoza did." Kalb warns us against a misunderstanding of

53 Bibel'sche Orient II, 31-33 and Kalb, Spinoza, p. 262. 54 Kalb, Spinoza, pp. 108 and 369. 55 Bibel'sche Orient II, 62, 64. 56 Bibel'sche Orient II, 67-68. 57 Kalb, Spinoza, pp. 93-97 which finds its echo in the Bibel'sche Orient

II, 31. 58 Kalb, Spinoza, p. 00.

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Judaism for being one-sided and taking Christianity as being absolute, or vice versa.

In the Bibel'sche Orient Spinoza is highly regarded because "he upset Christian philosophy and dogma with his real God."59 Spinoza "showed that the Bible was the national writings of a people whose point of view was revelation and free research and science." And he concludes that "the scientific influence of Spinoza ... together with Jewish persecution provides a good parallel to religious popular activity and to the fate of Christ." 60

To sum up: We assume that Kalb is most likely the author and that Bernays assisted him. That assumption is founded on the following facts: 1) The resemblance between Kalb's Notes in his book on Spinoza and what is to be found in the Bibel'sche Orient. Parallels can be seen in the ideas presented, in philological matters as well as in the understanding of Christianity. 2) The Bibel'sche Orient contains material which could only have been written by a person who was close to Christianity. It contains quotations from the New Testament and develops a dichotomy between universalism and nationalism. As we shall see further on, the philosophy of history is in certain aspects close to Kalb's outlook rather than to a typical Jewish outlook. 3) We know for a fact that in 1819 Kalb and Bernays met daily for a period of six months and spent 4-5 hours a day together. 4) This theory is consistent with the evidence of Wagner who was very close to them in time, place and mentality. 5) There are parts which Kalb could not have written without Bernays, such as on philological matters, since Kalb was no expert on etymology. It is also conceivable that the attitude towards the Reform Movement, the "Friedlaenders" and also a certain admiration for the Jewish religion and the rejection of Christi- anity as paganism come from Bernays.61

59 Bibel'sche Orient II, 61. 60 Bibel'sche Orient II, 64. 61 Christianity followed paganism by adoring Jesus as divine. See Bibel'sche

Orient II, 43.



On the other hand it is clear that in the Bibel'sche Orient one does not find a Christological attitude. It does not consider the old covenant as superfluous and that one can reach salvation only through Christ. Christianity is in certain ways considered superior to Judaism, and spiritualization is of central value. But Christ plays no central role. The two religions are considered to be on the same level with each other. Halakha is not dismissed. From the Christian point of view Kalb was an enlightened person and he places his emphasis on monotheism more than on Christ. All this can be found in Spinoza and can be connected with Kalb's extraordinary Christian outlook.

One finds no bitter debate against Halakha, nor against circumcision; the latter is simply not mentioned. There is no theory that the Covenant with the Jews was superfluous and that the salvation by Christ comes to replace it. Spiritualization is considered preferable to Halakha, but Halakha is also important and retains its place beside it. So that from the Christian point of view the book must be considered as enlightened, and even too tolerant because it emphasizes pure monotheism and not Christ.

We have here an unusual case for a dialogue which occurs in the history of ideas time and again when a Jew works together with a Christian on problems of comparative religion whether in terms of Hebrew grammar, or Talmud and the New Testa- ment, of Jewish and Christian Kabbala. Bernays was prepared for it. From his article on Gesenius we can see his familiarity with world literature as well as with Hebrew grammar. Yet how ready he was to conduct a dialogue on Halakha, chosenness, the origin of the Jewish people, the role of Christianity, nationalism and universalism, we do not know.

In 1821 Bernays' years of wandering were over. Once and for all he left his Christian teachers and friends whether in Munich or Wurzburg and returned to his native Jewish community in Mainz and to his old widowed mother. He had no clear idea as to what he would do in the future. It is possible that Bernays returned to Mainz in order to cease his intensive contacts with

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all his Christian friends. Most likely it was no longer easy for him to continue maintaining such friendships.

Bernays was received in Mainz with honor and was considered a great scholar. He was fortunate that after a few months he received a call to take up the most prestigious position as Chief Rabbi of the Hamburg community, the largest Jewish community in Germany, and was to retain this position for the rest of his life. He married and had sons and daughters. One of his sons, Jacob, became, as mentioned above, one of the greatest classical scholars of the nineteenth century; another son, Michael, converted to Christianity and broke off from the family. A third son, Berman, became a merchant in Vienna and had a daughter who married Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. And so the cycle comes to an end. The study of myth and religion by the grandfather was to be continued by the great genius who married the granddaughter, Martha Bernays.

The appointment to the Rabbinate was granted through the recommendation of Rabbi Baruch Ozer and J.L. Riesser, head of the Jewish community of Hamburg. They were interested in Bernays as a rabbi because he was a great genius, a university- trained rabbi, and because in those years the Orthodox community of Hamburg had encountered difficulties with the newly developed Reform Movement. The latter had gained strength, established a Temple, and published a prayer book.

The Hamburg community leaders were justified in their appointment of Bernays because through him, the Reform Movement in Hamburg weakened. It is not improbable that they had read Der Bibel'sche Orient superficially before issuing their invitation to Bernays, since the book appeared at the end of September 182062 and the negotiations were finalized only on July 16, 1821.63 They had invited Bernays because he was known for his general line of thinking, his rejection of the

62 Bach, p. 14. 63 Duckesz, p. 304.



Reform Movement, and his assertion that religion ought to be based on deeds and not on beliefs.

Chacham Bernays (he preferred the title Chacham to that of Rabbi) was one of the rabbis who preached in German. He generally favored grammatical exegesis of texts more than delivering sermons,64 and he loved to teach the Kuzari. He even hoped to receive a position at a Jewish university that was then being planned.65

The year in which Chacham Bernays arrived in Hamburg was the one in which Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), one of the most famous of orthodox rabbis, celebrated his bar mitzvah. A close relationship developed between them, and Hirsch had a high appreciation for his mentor. In the last of his Nineteen Letters Hirsch alludes to Bernays in writing: "only one star guided me somewhat in the beginning." 66 It is not unlikely that Hirsch, who also read a great deal in German philosophy and literature, was acquainted with the Bibel'sche Orient and saw it as Bernays' early view which he later "completely over- came."67

64 A famous saying of Bernays was "No grammar, no Adon Olam," He was more of a teacher than a speaker and taught texts such as Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari and the Psalms. See Hans Bach, "Isaak Bernays" in Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentum, 1939, p. 537.

65 Bach, Jacob Bernays, p. 25. 66 S.R. Hirsch, Nineteen Letters, trans. B. Drachman, New York, 1969,

p. 134. 67 See S.R. Hirsch, Jubilaeumnummer des Israelit, 1908, p. 28; Raphael

Breuer, Unter seinem Banner, Frankfurt/M, 1900, p. 215. See also S.R. Hirsch in Jeschurun vol. 14 (1867-68) p. 133, "Der sel. Bernays, dem Hr. Kirchheim ohne Weiteres den bibl. Orient zuschreibt, hat sich nie als Verfasser dieser Schrift bekannt ... War er der Verfasser dieser Schrift, so war diese Verirrung fur ihn ein vollig Uber wundener Standpunkt, als er den Kreis meiner Vater- stadt betrat." In R. Breuer p. 220, "Weder der Philologe Jakob, noch der getaufte Michael [the two sons of Bernays] strahlen uns treu das Bild ihres Vaters vieder. So wenig wie der biblischer Orient den der Vater vervarf, aehnlich wie spaeter die Mutter den Sohn (von ihrem Sterbelager) verstiess."

Isaak Heinemann68 points to many parallels between the Bibel'sche Orient and Hirsch's unique romantic line of thought both in his writings and in his exegesis, a subject I intend to elaborate on elsewhere. The striking similarities between the Bibel'sche Orient and the thought of Hirsch is not necessarily the outcome of the reading and re-reading of this book. It could equally be possible that Hirsch had heard many of those themes in Bernays' sermons or classes which he most likely attended.

The similarities between Hirsch and Berays appear especially conspicuous when we compare Bernays' thought as we know it from the Bibel'sche Orient with Hirsch's first published book, The Nineteen Letters (1836). The similarities are as follows: a) In the return to the Bible as the source for Jewish universalism and laying a great emphasis on it. b) In the attempt to construct a historiosophy on the stories of Adam, Abraham and Moses whose personalities even have similar characteristics. c) In considering the dispersion of the Jews among the nations as being of universal importance and in recognizing that Jewish life in the diaspora had a mission for world history. d) In the rejection of fundamentalism and an admiration for spirituality and symbolism, a theme which plays a strong part in Hirsch's other writings. Hirsch quotes Bernays twice in his interpretation to the Pentateuch.69

There are, of course, also important differences between the two, in their attitudes to Kabbala. Whereas Bernays drew his inward, spiritual understanding of the world from Kabbala, Hirsch mostly excluded the Kabbala from his work.69a He thought that he could have no knowledge of divine secrets, and in this sense he was more a follower of the Enlightenment.

68 See Heinemann's above-mentioned article in Zion, 1951. 69 See The Pentateuch Translated and Explained by S.R. Hirsch trans. from

the German by Isaac Levy, London, 1958-1962: Genesis 4:26 and Numbers 20:8.

69a There is evidence of Hirsch's early interest in Kabbala, a subject I will elaborate elsewhere.



Nevertheless, the great talents of Bernays and the numerous years they were together in Hamburg make it possible to assume that the thoughts which Hirsch derived from Bernays must have helped him in developing a philosophy which was to have such a great influence upon German Orthodoxy.

The famous historian, Heinrich Graetz, stated that he had heard from a reliable source that Bernays denied being the author of the Bibel'sche Orient even though it followed his line of thinking.70 Graetz' opinion leaves room for the suggestion that Kalb was the writer of the manuscript and that it includes material of both.

Isaac Bernays' career is strikingly similar to that of his beloved son, Jacob Bernays, the great classical scholar who lived in Bonn and Breslau and who observed the Halakha although he lived among non-Jewish scholars and was a free thinker.71 Jacob was asked to convert so as to receive a position at the university, but refused that temptation. His difficulties with the Christians were different from those of his father. It is known that spiritually the son was extremely close to his father and that upon his father's death he wrote Schelling that he felt as though the very root of his being had been taken away.72

Chacham Isaac Berays was also open to critical approaches. He was a romantic pioneer in Jewish philological research, a man with an extremely wide scope of knowledge, mystical beliefs and deep appreciation for the spiritual significance of

70 Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, Leipzig, 1870, Vol. 5, pp. 389 and 391.

71 See Bach, Jacob Bernays and E.E. Urbach, "Jacob Bernays and his Influence on the Science of Judaism" [in Hebrew] Tarbis, 1982 p. 108. Jacob Bernays was offered a position in Bonn provided he converted, but he refused. Bernays had a very pessimistic outlook regarding Christianity and antisemi- tism. Urbach also shows (p. 120) that when Jacob Bernays was in Beslau at the Seminary, he studied kabbalistic manuscripts.

72 Hans Bach, "Berays und Schelling, eine unbekannte Tagesbuchaufzeich- nung" in Zeitschrift fur Religions und Geistesgeschichte XXV, 4 (1973), 340.

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ritual. Common moulds will not fit this extraordinary, imaginative, lonely scholar.

Heinrich Heine, who attended his sermons in 1823 wrote to Moser that "he is a charlatan understood by none of the Jews." 73 Steinheim thought he was an anti-liberal reformer and was disturbed by Berays' opposition to the idea of revelation.74 Graetz thought that he had one foot in Rabbinic Judaism and the other out of it. Moser thought that the author of the Bibel'sche Orient preached "rabbinics" without being convinced by it.

The author of the Bibel'sche Orient shows very little of the Talmudic background that Bernays acquired in the yeshivot. Instead, it primarily makes use of the philosophy and linguistics studied at the universities, to which we shall now turn.

C. The Philosophy of History At the opening of the book, the reader is requested to listen to the Bible, not in the terms in which Luther saw it, as the national writings of simple-minded shepherds, shrewd priests and despotic kings, but to see the essential spirit of the book as sacred scripture. The Bible appears in its purity, without any intellectual verbiage, presents its meaning for world history, and voices its "fire sounds" (Feuerlauten) as an expression of the human soul. In the spirit of Herder75 the book aims to understand the Bible in terms of myth and to evaluate events from the point of view of psychology, presenting the Bible as a mythical source for the religion of the world.

This universal opening could have been an announcement by a non-Jewish theologian. It could be related to the trend of the

73 H. Heine, Briefwechsel, ed. F. Hirt, 1. 243. See also Bach's article (note 13 above), p. 36.

74 Bach, ibid. See also S.L. Steinheim in Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, 15, dated April 19th, 1842, p. 220.

75 The author greatly admires J.G. Herder's Vom Geist der hebraeischen Poesie.



Deists, or the Hebraists of England and France, which took hold in the Germany of Reimarus and Semler. However, in the continuation to the opening, the book addresses itself specifically to the Jews. The author appears to be convinced of the urgency of this task76 because of the recent internal conflicts resulting from the actions of the city councillor, Mr. Fried- laender, one of the important and extreme reformists of Berlin.

The book is subject to the influence of the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment movement, leaving the Talmud behind and turning to classical antiquity, to the Bible. But the method which it applies to the Bible is not one of aesthetic simplicity but the spirituality, philology and etymology of the romantics. In trying to understand the spirit of the ancient Jewish people, it penetrates into the layers of its language and its connections with neighboring languages and myths. Ancient national history becomes the history of the Hebrew language.

Whereas the Enlightenment and the Reform Movement had a negative attitude towards myth, and constructed Jewish monotheism on the basis of reason, the Bibel'sche Orient advocates ethical monotheism which it had reached through its development from pagan roots.77 It quotes biblical verses which show how the development of the Jewish people began with idol worship, derived from an Amorite father and a Hittite mother. It shows the origins of ancient Israel emerging out of its pagan neighbors. It quotes Ezekiel 16:3: "Thine origin and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; the Amorite was thy father and thy mother was a Hittite." It also quotes Joshua 24:2: "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in the days of yore, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods."

Three biblical personalities interest the author particularly: Adam, Abraham and Moses. He sees the numerous stories in Genesis as variations on one theme: the weakness of human-

76 Bibel'sche Orient I, 6. 77 Bibel'sche Orient I, 24-25.

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kind. Adam was created in the image of his Father, but "he was expelled from his house" as a consequence of his earthly body and "the Fall of the spirit into sensuality."78 The theme of ethical disobedience and divine punishment recurs in the story of Cain, the Tower of Babylon, the Nephilim i.e. the Fallen Spirits, and the Flood. These stories are the mythical origins of the world. Mankind remembers the ideal beginning, but there is a decline and a sinking into matter and desire. Within man there is both a yearning towards the divine and a desire to yield to physical temptations.

The author compares the Bible with the mythology of other nations and shows the superiority of the biblical stories in its ethical message. God warns the evildoer and then fulfils His warning. He intervenes personally.79 The stories are considered as "dramas which describe the entry of mankind into history, and are authenticated, concrete monuments of the emergence of mankind from the original intimacy with God (Urnahe)." These dramas must be the foundation of any religion. "And in this universal manner" the author continues, "every religion is brought back to its central idea." 80

After the first monotheistic stage, idol-worship spread and rebellious tendencies became stronger. Paganism is viewed as the worshipping of partial powers as though they were indepen- dent deities. The original Deity was altered and distorted.

Abraham is described as a reformer who established monotheism, and the association of this with Luther comes to mind. Monotheism is not reached by divine revelation but through Abraham's recognition of God. In the description of his personality, the universal characteristics are emphasized and not his being the father of the Jewish people or his being circumcised, or his receiving as promise of the Land. The God of Abraham is

78 Bibel'sche Orient I, 18. 79 Bibel'sche Orient I, 19. 80 Ibid.



called "the One" a term which indicates a Neoplatonic or Spinozist conception that can be found throughout the book.

The Bibel'sche Orient shows great interest in mythical sto- ries81 and suggests that Melchizedek, the priest of El Elyon, combined the gods of heaven and earth into a single unified God, and this view has nowadays been in some sense substan- tiated through a study of the texts written by Philo of Byblos.82 But the Bibel'sche Orient still considers the God of Melchizedek to be inferior to the One of Abraham.

In order to strengthen monotheism, Abraham demanded a trimming of the branches of the tree of life which were growing in wild abandon.83 Developing a midrash in the spirit of Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari, the book considers Abraham as having returned to the Hebrew language and alludes to the fact that God spoke to Adam in Hebrew, the source of all languages which were later confused during the construction of the Tower of Babel.84

Abraham proclaimed the monotheistic faith, as it says "He called in the name of the Lord." 85 He also acquired the epithet "just" (Zaddik) because he clung to the ONE in all his struggles against fate.

The author describes "Abrahamism" 86 as a shepherd family which had a strongly rooted opposition to all forms of excess in cultic ritual. However, this seems to contradict the biblical description in which Abraham is said to be "very rich in cattle, silver and gold" (Gen. 13:2). The author is perhaps under the influence of Psalm 23 when he writes that Abraham's family "looked upon the Original Idea (the Uridee) as upon the eternal

81 Bibel'sche Orient I, 26. 82 See the Encylopedia Mikra'it [Biblical Encyclopedia in Hebrew] under the

entry "el Elyon" in Vol. I, pp. 289-291. Philo of Byblos speaks of a Canaanite god called "elyon" which was a pre-Israelite god of a universal nature.

83 Bibel'sche Orient I, 21. 84 Yehuda Halevi, The Kuzari, II, 68. 85 Genesis 12:8. 86 Bibel'sche Orient I, 34.

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shepherd of mankind." It kept its eyes away from majestic splendor and believed firmly in God's protection. The distin- guishing feature of Abraham is that, unlike Adam, he withstood temptation, and unlike Adam, he did not fail God's test of obedience to the divine will.

The reason that Abraham was considered righteous was because he did not believe in fate, in the idols, but in divine providence. Even during the most difficult moments of his life he believed in "El Olam" the Everlasting God.87 He surrendered himself in such a way to the ONE that he was completely unconcerned about the course which God's promises would be realized, however incomprehensible it might seem; he would "always wait quietly and faithfully" for their fulfilment.

With the verse "And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6), Bernays connects Emet and Emunah and Amen with the eschatological prophecy of Isaiah (65:16-17) "so that he who blesseth himself with earth shall swear by the God of truth (Amen) ... because the former troubles are forgotten ... I create a new heaven and a new earth." 88 This verse speaks of the final Kingdom of Heaven and alludes to the final stage as Amen. In the Ethiopian language, as the Bibel'sche Orient notes, Ammon is the ideal god, the spirit that personifies existence and truth. The Bibel'sche Orient also develops the etymology of the name Abraham from the Ara- maic "bram" which means truth, and reminds the reader that Brahma in Sanskrit means the creating god.

In the Bibel'sche Orient attention is paid to the names of many a biblical hero such as Noah and others who are usually conceived as metaphors and their meaning is connected with the biblical story and used to interpret it. Here the influence of Philo may be mentioned. This kind of interpretation was popular in that period in Germany and was also partially invented by Bernays.

87 Bibel'sche Orient I, 21; Genesis 21:29. 88 Bibel'sche Orient I, 22.



The description given in the Bibel'sche Orient of Abraham is of a universal monotheist and not, as noted above, the first Jew. The author also rejects the Pauline interpretation. Abraham is as it were above both Judaism and Christianity. In relation to the verse "And he believed in God" the Bibel'sche Orient argues against the New Testament where Paul relates his notion of pistis with the faith of Abraham. The Bibel'sche Orient says: "Paul went back to this 'naked' pre-Mosaic period and he baptized this principle in his dogmatic theological writings as pistis." 89

The weakness of Abraham is found in the binding of Isaac. The author of the Bibel'sche Orient considers that this story shows that Abraham, despite his belief in the One, was close to paganism. The "sacrifice of Isaac" was only a minimal achievement for Abraham, and all he gained from it was "the fear of God" (Gen. 22:12).90 In criticizing that story, the Bibel'sche Orient claims that such an idea could not have been developed by the later prophets. They would not have "attached belief to a vision that requires an idolatrous sacrifice of a human being."

The Bibel'sche Orient describes the personality of Moses as an antithesis to Abraham. Abraham recognized the ONE as a universal, cosmic idea, a universal faith with no need for commandments or for a land, whereas Moses recognized the need of a Torah and land in which the people should live. One of the most important innovations of Moses was the understanding of the importance of worshipping God in fixed forms, and for this reason Moses was called "the servant of God."

One might discern here the influence of Christianity or of Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise in the description of Moses. Abraham is the ideal spiritual person who has no connection with cult, whereas Moses founded a national religion based on symbolic acts and cultic ritual.91 The Bibel'sche

89 Epistle to the Romans 4:3; Bibel'sche Orient I, 22. 90 Bibel'sche Orient I, 24. 91 Bibel'sche Orient I, 38.

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Orient stresses the difference of those two attitudes: "it then becomes clear that man acts only through and in God. And this is so because the creator of the world is now the redeemer of Israel."92

The positive attitude towards Moses is surprising, and was considered as extraordinary by Wagner, as mentioned above. In the Bibel'sche Orient the inner belief is often stressed as something spiritual and in certain aspects is not connected with practical cult, yet on the other hand there is an understanding for Moses and his positive attitude to the Commandments which educate and keep the people within a framework of moral propriety.

According to the Bibel'sche Orient Moses conceived that reform after the Israelites had worshipped the Golden Calf (Exod. 32:1). Moses recognized that inner belief was no longer sufficient. In that story the people asked Aaron: "Make us an Elohim who can walk before us." The Bibel'sche Orient pays attention to the plural yelkhu - they should walk.93 They wanted a representation of leadership in a visible and popular form, and so Aaron proclaimed the Feast of Apis, the Egyptian bull-god, as the feast of the Lord (Apis is not mentioned in the Scriptures).

Moses wished to halt the idolatry; as a pragmatist he decided to reduce the idea of a cosmic, eternal world and historical conceptions about the origins of mankind to didactic forms according to the needs of that nation. He introduced reforms in order to rescue the people. The Commandments helped to educate the people and develop their national consciousness. Moses gave them a land, a language and a cult, and his task was continued by the judges in a later period.

The gathering at Mount Sinai is described in the Bibel'sche Orient as the coming down of "The Highest and Holy One ... in

92 Bibel'sche Orient I, 37. 93 Exodus 32:1; Bibel'sche Orient I, 36.



His chariot of clouds to the sandhill of matter."94 This is explained as "the self-objectivation of the divinity..." The ONE became objective through the sounds and the words. The intention was to form the cosmic into a national cult and to expel idol worship. Moses did not eliminate the language of the idol worshipper; it was retained while the worship was modified and reformed, and was given a new meaning.

On the other hand, one of the most important ideas of the book is the recognition of ethical monotheism and a very strong tendency towards universalism. It is very possible that this was a motif that unified both authors, and these motifs are in agreement with the greatly admired Spinoza who is also mentioned in Berays' review of Gesenius95 and the general trend of the Enlightenment. The motto of the Bibel'sche Orient is taken from Isaiah 26:9 which reads: "For when Thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."

However, in the Bibel'sche Orient one also finds a different tendency expressed by an extreme universalism and which appears as a tendency towards Christianity. The Bibel'sche Orient claims that the religion of Moses degenerated and failed; it did not achieve what it had hoped to achieve. People tended towards luxury and admired the idols of neighboring countries. The author, who was very interested in ancient paganism, its customs and its influence on the Jewish people, links what is said in the Pentateuch to the life of the Jews in Egypt more than a thousand years later, pointing out that in the time of Jere- miah, after the destruction of the First Temple, the Jews in Egypt worshipped idols (Jer. 44:17-18).

The way of the Torah is insufficient, according to the Bi- bel'sche Orient. The Pentateuch itself had reached the conclusion that the achievement of the Torah was limited and did not have sufficient answers to all the problems that the people might face. The Bibel'sche Orient finds a solution to this in the

94 Bibel'sche Orient I, 58. 95 Spinoza's work on the Hebrew language is quoted on p. 186.

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Pentateuch itself: the recognition of a dialectical history leading towards universalism and spiritualism. Clues to this can be found in the words of Balaam, and a rabbinic saying that "Balaam was greater than Moses" is quoted.96 The author explains that at first Balaam was a magician, but then realized that spiritual, rational power was in the hands of a divine providence which had universal prevalence. "Moses could not lift himself above nationality; Balaam, however, could." "Balaam felt the universal power in the present and saw its absolute reign at the end of time."97

At the end of his life, Moses also realizes in despair that sin was lurking at those open doors and he says "this people will rise up and go astray after the foreign gods of the land" (Deut. 31:16). Yet Balaam foresaw the destruction of the Temple on the level of world history while Moses, in the author's opinion, "foresaw the future spiritualization of mankind."98 Moses ex- pected that the power of Judaism would eventually become universal.

The extreme universalism of the Bibel'sche Orient has hardly any comparison in Judaism. It appears as though universal monotheism is by far the most important contribution of Moses. "This Idea shall spiritualize history, and lead the whole of mankind to its divine goal."99 For the author of the Bi- belsche Orient even the prophets, and even the Son of David, appear too limited, too national-minded.

Nevertheless, the Bibel'sche Orient offered the idea that Israel is the atlas of world history and bears the spiritual and ethical responsibility for the world. Diaspora Jews thus have a mission to fulfil in carrying monotheistic belief among the nations.10?

96 See the Bibel'sche Orient I, 61 on the verse in Deuteronomy 34:10: "And there hath not risen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses." The Sifre adds:

"Among the Nations one did rise and who is he? Balaam the son of Beor." 97 Bibel'sche Orient I, 60-61. 98 Bibel'sche Orient I, 63. 99 Bibel'sche Orient I, 64. '0 Bibel'sche Orient I, 65.



D. Kabbala and its Sources in Egypt: Parallels between Kabbala and Indian Culture

The thesis that the source of the Torah is in Egypt is found today in theories held by black Americans who wish to relate Moses and monotheism to Egypt, or to indicate its origins in black culture.

In the Bibel'sche Orient one finds a different idealization of Egyptian culture in the period of the Second Temple, and it is seen as the source of Jewish wisdom in the Land of Israel. The cosmic and universal in Essene culture stems from Egypt and this was the source for Christianity. The author develops a prevalent idea that Christianity has its primary sources in Hellenism. The Egyptian mysteries are particularly admired by the author of the Bibel'sche Orient; it is not only the source for the Essenes and John the Baptist, but even for the Pharisees who represented the dominant form of Judaism in the Second Temple period.101

This view expresses the desire to deny Judaism its proper place in the historical development of Christianity, as though the latter had its foundation solely in Greek culture. In the Bibel'sche Orient, Greek-Hellenistic culture is highly appreciated, and its spiritualism is closely related to the author's outlook. Philo, the Septuagint, and symbolic interpretations are admired.

This attitude may have had its sources in Herder or Schiller who saw Moses as the product of Egyptian culture. Or it resulted from the works of the Deists of the 18th century'02 who were liberal and Hebraist, yet who expressed antisemitic ideas and claimed that the main body of the Israelite religion stemmed from Egypt. Such ideas can be found in the writings of John Spencer, John Toland, Shaftesbury, and others.

101 Bibel'sche Orient II, 17, 24ff. 102 S. Ettinger, "Judaism and Jews in the eyes of the Deists in England in the

18th century" [in Hebrew], Modern Anti-Semitism. Studies and Essays, Tel Aviv, 1978, pp. 87-88.

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The Deists provided, to a certain extent, the continuation of ancient antisemitic literature such as Tacitus or Apion.103 Al- though they were enlightened on other subjects, the Deists betrayed their prejudice when it came to the Jewish question. Ettinger also shows that their influence in England lasted for some fifty years, and that this pattern of thought was later taken over by French scholars; it can be found in the writings of Voltaire, and then was transmitted to Germany.

In the Bibel'sche Orient this idea has by no means any antisemitic character, yet it suggests that the wisdom of the Jews in the Land of Israel is inferior to that which can be found in the Egypt of Ptolemy. According to this book, all three sects - the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes - learned their wisdom in Egypt. The Sadducees were influenced by Greek secular culture which existed in Egypt, while the Essenes and the Pharisees who produced the Kabbala and the Talmud, found their sources in the Egyptian mysteries.'04

This same idea, that Egyptian symbolism, mysticism and universalism are the source for Judaism and Christianity, is also to be found in the writings of the famous Renaissance scholar, Giordano Bruno.105 He, too, praises Egyptian culture as the source of monotheism and other wisdom literature. Ptole- maic culture is central both for Bruno and for the Bibel'sche Orient because it expresses popular religion, magic and Neo- platonism. These as well as the Pythagorean order influenced the Jewish Therapeutics who are described by Philo as a Jewish order living in the desert and who were of central importance to the author of this book.

In his imagination and desire to reduce the originality of the Jewish people, the author of the Bibel'sche Orient goes one step

103 M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, 2 vols., Jerusalem, 1978.

o04 Bibel'sche Orient II, 24. o10 See Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition,

London, 1954, pp. 224, 271, 274.



further. In his view, Egypt was not only the source of Ptolemaic culture in the Second Temple period, but was also the source of ancient Jewish wisdom. To propose such an idea that Jewish monotheism stems from Egypt,106 the author does not quote Ikhnaton, but suggests that the ancient Egyptians possessed a secret knowledge of monotheism but kept it hidden until the time came for its revelation in the Ptolemaic period and the appearance of the early Neoplatonists when their secret became widely known. Moses, however, had received that wisdom from Egypt in an earlier period, gave it national form, and publicized it immediately in his own generation.

Both the Bibel'sche Orient and Sigmund Freud more than a century later, agree on the thesis that Jewish monotheism has its roots in Egypt. The claim here is that an idea of such high value did not come from the Jews. The parallel between the Bibel'sche Orient ascribed to Bernays, and Moses and Monotheism written by Freud who had married Bernays' granddaughter, is remark- able. It is quite possible that Freud knew something about the Bibel'sche Orient which had often caused difficulties for Isaac Bernays whenever he raised his voice against the Reform Movement.

One must remember that scholars such as Zunz and Geiger ascribed the Bibel'sche Orient to Bernays.107 Bernays himself kept silent, neither denying nor confirming it, but it was like a cloud over his life. Jacob Bernays, the son of Chacham Isaac

106 Bibel'sche Orient II, 25. 107 L. Zunz as editor of Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaft des Judentum, added an

editorial note to the review of the Bibel'sche Orient by Moses Moser (Vol. I, 1822, p. 117), saying that the Bibel'sche Orient was most likely the work of Berays. Moser's review is critical of the Bibel'sche Orient and is the response of the reformists to its attack on them. A. Geiger spoke up against Bernays in relation to the Tempelstreit in 1842, and was astonished that a man who held such views as those expressed in the Bibel'sche Orient comes out against the Reform Movement. See A. Geiger, Der Hamburger Tempelstreit, eine Zeitfrage, 1842, pp. 5-12.

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Bernays and uncle to Martha and Freud, believed it was not the work of his father.'08

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the book is written in the spirit of Isaac Bernays. It was Isaac Bernays who was interested in languages, in comparative religion, in myth and in ancient cultures. It could very well have been that the enormous linguistic talents and interests of the father roused his son Jacob to study classical philology and become interested in primitive religions. And it is quite plausible that the themes of the Bibel'sche Orient were discussed by Freud and Jacob Bernays.

One of the early books written by Freud was Totem and Taboo which deals with ancient religions, and he founded his psychoanalysis on the Oedipus myth. In his book, Moses and Monotheism, Freud claimed that Moses learned monotheism from the Egyptians and taught it to the Israelites. For Freud, the pattern of the Oedipus myth in which the son wishes to kill his father, was a central one for his psychoanalytical theories, and he therefore claimed that the people of Israel eventually killed Moses their leader. One may well ask how Freud would have reacted to the Bibel'sche Orient, whether he would have received it with appreciation or have rejected it on the basis of those same Oedipal tendencies which were so significant for him.

No doubt the Bibel'sche Orient offered a different interpretation of the Torah from that of Freud. In its view, Moses wished to give the Jews a national religion and cult, but the people were too weak and they lapsed into idolatry. The attempt made by Moses had failed, and in the end one must seek universalism and a monotheistic ethics for the whole world. Yet this ethical humanism of Kalb and Bernays remained obscure and did not achieve wide circulation. Freud's claim, on the other hand, became known to the general public and generated a great deal

108 See Bach's article (note 13 above), p. 13.



of reaction. It was publicized on the eve of the Holocaust109 and roused considerable anger and bitterness to both Jews and Christians of good will.

The description of the Essenes in the Bibel'sche Orient is related to that of the Therapeutics. The book suggests that the word "therapeutae" means "the one who heals, the magician." In Aramaic, the root "asa", i.e. healing, also means myrtle, a plant. It relates the Greek root of therapeutae with the Hebrew word "rafa" and "terafim" and says that "Antiquity considered every human healing as mastering nature." 10 The cures are sometimes deified and sometimes outlawed, and therefore one also has in Hebrew the word "eretz refaim" the region of the rephaim, a place of exile which later came to mean the kingdom of the dead.

The Bibel 'sche Orient compares the life of the Essenes to that of the Pythagoreans who lived in groups and led a contempla- tive life. The Therapeutics stressed the spirit more than the letter of the law, and tended, like Philo, to symbolic interpretations which the author of the book found extremely interesting.

As mentioned earlier, the author claims that the Pharisees and Halakha derive their sources from Egyptian mysteries. The historical connection is made through the visit of the leading Pharisee, Shimon ben Shatach, to Egypt to escape persecution by the Sadducees.

The Sadducees are considered inferior to the Essenes. They prefer the letter of the law, the literariness, the external forms; and the Torah for them is a basis for political institution based on temporal values."' They formed the priestly caste which controlled Temple ritual, and were known for their rejection of the Pharisaic belief in the future resurrection of the dead.

109 On the Jewish perspective, see the brilliant book by Y.H. Yerushalmi, Freud's Moses Judaism Terminable and Interminable, New Haven, 1991.

110 Bibel'sche Orient II, 26. 1 Bibel'sche Orient II, 24.

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The author's sympathies are undoubtedly with the Essenes who are appreciated more than the Pharisees, although the latter are not presented in a negative light. The Kabbala is of central importance to the author because it expresses the inner, ideal principle of the Halakha and saves man from the perplex- ity of halakhic sophistications. It has its source in Essene traditions expressing the internal, ideal essence of the com- mandment, and serving as its guiding star in the labyrinth of its practical ramifications.12 The Essenes were a community of ascetics and pious people who "maintain a divine-human world life" which implies that "the righteous man is the pillar of the world." They organized a missionary movement"3 and baptized new members to initiate them into their community of fellowship.

On the other hand, the Pharisees developed the spirit as well as the law. According to these sections in the Bibel'sche Orient, religion needs both the letter and the spirit. It expresses an appreciation for the Talmud which is described as "an encyclopedic aggregate of all Jewish knowledge." 14 The Talmud is not an antithesis to the theories of the Essenes, but is close to them because it also values the spirit. The book even speaks of a Pharisaic-Essene ethics for which the common ideal was the Kabbala. The Talmud demands a belief in the most detailed Mosaic symbolism, and develops guidelines for practical civil- ian and religious life. And here the author is even prepared to say that the Talmud is great because it leads to practical deeds.

One also finds in those sections the view that the Torah represents both the external and the spiritual. The author presents two approaches to the Torah: that of the Masora of Tiberias with its interest in the text and the preservation of the letters of the Torah in their purest form; and that of the Kabbala which penetrates into the spirit of the Torah. Both are central

112 Bibel'sche Orient II, 29. 113 Bibel'sche Orient II, 31. 114 Bibel'sche Orient II, 48.



for the understanding of later Judaism. The Masora eternalized the Bible in its external form by counting the letters, studying textual problems, while the Kabbala "put a superior meaning into the biblical letter and gave it inferior value as merely the embodiment of the external, geometrical form of an Idea." 15

The book appreciates both approaches, but prefers the kabbalistic-spiritual level of understanding.

Bernays' etymological exegesis of words and letters differs considerably from the exegesis of Mendelssohn and scholars of the Haskalah in Berlin who laid emphasis on esthetics and the literal meaning. The Munich approach stood in open opposition to the rational approach of Berlin. The spiritual exegesis of the former was preferable because it poured new content into the ancient forms, revealed fresh elements and brought the text into contemporary relevance.

The Bibel'sche Orient, reflecting this spirit of Munich, is unique in showing how a university-trained Jew attacks the Reform Movement, stresses the importance of preserving the Mitzvot, and sees Kabbala as the natural outgrowth of ancient Judaism which nevertheless appears to him as having universal importance. This is probably what appealed to the Hamburg community leaders when they appointed him as rabbi.

One could claim that there were many themes of interest and Kabbala is only one of the many subjects in the Bibel'sche Orient. Yet it plays a decisive role in the metaphysical outlook of the author, it is at the very heart of the book, and is of central importance in evaluating its spiritual and symbolic dimension. This is to say nothing of the fact that around 1820 one can find very few works in Germany in which Kabbala plays an important role.

The description of the Kabbala is similar to the line of thought taken by Christian Kabbalists with an interest in broad metaphysical structures, comprehending the whole structural world through the Sephirot, the Science of Creation or Ma'aseh

15 Bibel'sche Orient II, 47.

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Bereshit and the Science of Divine Holiness or Ma'aseh Merka- bah. Kabbala is not a national, parochial science, but of crucial importance for the understanding of the world. It is, according to the Bibel'sche Orient, a reorganization of national history into world ideas. The three Patriarchs receive cosmic meaning, and when the fourth one, David, is added, they symbolize the Divine Chariot that bears the world. The Bibel'sche Orient sees a relation between the kabbalistic idea of the Merkabah (the chariot) and the Hindu concept of the divine wagon.16

The Bibel'sche Orient stresses time and again the importance of language. Hebrew letters have numerical value. The Kabbala sometimes developed systems of numbers as an ideal Organon. Bernays alludes to Gematria, a homiletic interpretation based on the numerical value of letters. In Hebrew, Bernays claims, every word that is written has a double meaning: an ordinary meaning and a spiritual meaning. The whole Torah could be dissolved into numbers which symbolically represent the divine and in this way he also interpreted the relationships within the divine. Bernays quotes the famous saying of Nahmanides that the entire Torah is the name of the Holy God.17

The Bibel'sche Orient favors the kabbalistic numerical, spiritual meaning that was developed by many Kabbalists, as for example the German Jewish Pietists of the 13th century, Hassi- dei Ashkenaz, or by Abraham Abulafia. It stands, above the historical or legal content of the word. However, time and again, the book expresses a Jewish point of view when stressing that in Judaism, harmony exists between the inner and the outer, therefore Kabbala remained within Judaism. Kabbala internalized Halakha, and in Judaism a synthesis between inner spiritual meaning and the external act of the Mitzvah had always existed. According to Bernays, the word forms the

116 Bibel'sche Orient II, 43-44. 117 The source is Nahmanides' Introduction to the Torah. See the Bibel'sche

Orient II, 45.



external world of creation, and the Wisdom of God forms the internal cosmic relations.118

The Bibel'sche Orient states that Kabbala could have contrib- uted significantly to the universal blend of mankind if man had seriously pursued its world systems and actively worked in its application. However, that treasure of the Kabbala was buried under barbarian rubble. These generalizations probably attempt to explain the fact why Kabbala was formed in ancient rabbinic times and then disappeared from the scene. It was secretly preserved by both Jews and Christians.

The Bibel'sche Orient values both the Martinists as well as ancient Jewish Kabbala. Nahmanides was highly appreciated and is portrayed as one who interpreted Jewish law with a certain amount of freedom in the Essene-Kabbalist spirit. Like Nahman Krochmal, a contemporary of Bernays in Galicia, only the early Kabbala was appreciated119 while the Kabbala of Isaac Luria in Safed of the 16th century seemed to Bernays as decayed and "a pure, ascetic quibble." 120 The Bibel'sche Orient seeks parallels to the Kabbala in Hindu thought. The idea may not seem so strange in the context of the author's mind which saw Jewish thinking as having global importance. He accepted the traditional view that the Zohar was written in Palestine in the 2nd century, and in his philological studies of the Bible he assumed that there were cultural connections between Sanskrit and Hebrew. Thus the possibility of a relationship between the Kabbala and Hinduism appeared to him as quite probable, although it has no historical basis.121

118 Bibel'sche Orient II, 46. 19 See the article in Hebrew by Rivka Horwitz, "Goyim ve-'elohav, Rabbi

Nahman Krochmal and his Jewish Sources" in the Jubilee Volume for Shlomo Pines for his 80th Birthday, Vol. I and in Mehkere Yerushalayim be-Mah.shevet Yisrael, Vol. 7 (1988), pp. 265-287.

120 Bibel'sche Orient II, 54. 121 After Schopenhauer, interest in this theme was renewed. See I. Guenzig's

article in Hebrew "Hafilosophia hahodit ve'hakabbala" [Hindu Philosophy and Kabbala] in Ha'eshkol Vol. III, 1900, pp. 40-48.

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The attempt by Jewish thinkers to make a synthesis between Judaism and the prevalent, cultural tendencies of their age is well known. It is, however, interesting to note that Schelling and

Molitor, the two great Christian thinkers of the early 19th

century who were interested in Kabbala, objected to those

attempts to find connections between Judaism and Hinduism. The inquiry into Hindu religions was particularly important

for the German Romantics searching for the sources of Indo-

European culture as the origin of their own language and civilization. The interest in Hinduism grew also as a result of the studies in comparative religion. Aside from the work by F.

Schlegel, Uber Sprache und Weisheit der Inder (1808), we shall mention an author who is referred to in the Bibel'sche Orient, the important pietist scholar, Johann Arnold Kanne and also A. Wagner, a friend of Bernays' teacher, J. Wagner, who wrote

System der indischen Mythe (1813). The Bibel'sche Orient may have been the first work in modern

times to compare Kakbala and Hinduism. It was followed by an

ingenious young scholar, Meir H. Landauer'22 (who died in 1841 at the age of 33) whose interest in Hinduism was far

greater than that of Bernays. In his two books123 Landauer

122 Meir Heinrich Landauer (1808-1841), was the son of a pious cantor in the state of Wurttemberg. He was a Talmud student in his youth and later became a student of Schelling in Munich and of biblical studies in Tiibingen where he was influenced by the critical approach to the Bible. In 1838, when the

great treasures of Jewish manuscripts in the Munich Hojbibliothek were opened to the public, he returned to Munich despite his failing health to study those

writings. Yet he also pursued his former interests, took his rabbinical examina- tion in 1839 and in 1840 became Rabbi of Braunsbach. A few months later he died. His notes on his findings in the Munich library dealing with medieval poetry and Kabbala, were published posthumously by Fiirst in Der Orient in 1845-1846. For a list of the kabbalistic notes, see G. Scholem's Bibliographica Kabbalistica, Leipzig, 1927, pp. 91-92.

123 Landauer, Jehova und Elohim oder die althebraische Gotteslehre als Grundlage der Geschichte, der Symbolik und der Gesetzgebung der Bucher Mosis, Stuttgart und Augsburg, 1836, and Wesen und Form des Pentateuch, Stuttgart und Augsburg, 1838.



developed his exegesis of the Bible by constructing a symbolic theory which interprets three primary names of God: El Roi, El Shaddai, and El Koneh in accordance with the three Hindu deities: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva - the Creator, the Pre- server and the Destroyer. The selection of the names was based on deeper insight into the text by means of which Landauer interpreted root etymologies in a symbolic manner.

Although Landauer quotes Kabbala from the start, his thoughts on Hinduism are related to the Bible and not seen as parallel to the Kabbala. As a romantic, Landauer developed his own symbolic interpretations. He studied Bible at the university, was well versed in biblical scholarship, including traditional exegesis. In a rather imaginative way, Landauer considered the possibility of a relationship between the biblical stories and Hindu culture. Terah came from India, the story of Adam (the fig tree, the tree of life, the serpent, etc.) have their parallels in Hinduism. Abraham, Sarah, Keturah, Noah, Job, the names of Isaiah's sons, and many other details, also have Hindu parallels. Yet at one point Landauer's interest suddenly shifted from symbolic biblical interpretation in terms of a Hindu trilogy and etymology to Kabbala proper, and particularly to the Zohar.'24 When writing the second part of the book, he discusses the trilogies of the Zohar and poses the question as a Jew would: how is it that the Zohar contains trilogies. He rejects the possibility of Christian influence and therefore explains it as having been composed in pre-Christian times. Needless to say that many of his theories were highly imaginative.

The Bibel'sche Orient develops its interest in the three Hindu deities, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva who represent the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer and draws a parallel between them

124 For the sudden shift to Kabbala in the middle of the book, see Wesen und Form des Pentateuch, pp. 81-106; on the resemblance between the Hindu trinity and the Bible, see althebraische Gotteslehre, pp. 16-25, 29, 35; and on the comparison of Hinduism with biblical figures and stories see pp. 47ff and 69ff.

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and the three major Sephirot in the Kabbala: Keter, Yesod, and Malkhut.'25 Shiva is also related to Shabbat. The book connects Shivat, the feminine form of the god Shiva, to two Hebrew roots, the form of seven, as Shivat and Shabbat. Shabbat is, according to Bernays, an allusion to the cessation of God's overflowing emanations into the world; it is the moment of rest.

The Bibel'sche Orient also draws a parallel between ten Hindu gods and the ten Sephirot. For both, these are divine forces or emanations into the world. Kabbala and Hinduism also share the idea of metempsychosis which is an attempt to answer the question of dissolution and renewal of life.

In conclusion, one can see that we have before us the attempt of a lonely Jewish scholar to penetrate into the Jewish past aided by the methods of the romantic school of thought in Munich. He was assisted by a Christian friend who was interested to learn from a Jewish scholar about those sources which would otherwise be hidden from him.

One might compare that kind of learning to the way Chris- tians learned Kabbala from Jews, or the discussions held in earlier generations on the shared foundations for the New Testament, the Talmud and the Midrash. One could also compare such situations with the very serious study of Kabbala by the great Christian scholar, Franz Josef Molitor (1779-1860) who came under Schelling's influence. Molitor was also in contact with Jews who helped him to understand Kabbala in detail. His story also begins with the early 19th century when he joined the Freemasons. It was Ephraim Josef Hirschfeld, who was a very exceptional kind of Jew, who helped Molitor to enter into the world of Kabbala. The names of the other two rabbis who also helped him in his studies still remain unknown.'26 They must have realized the danger of trespassing beyond the borderlines of their religion in an age when open dialogue was

125 Bibel'sche Orient I, 45. 126 See Gershom Scholem's article on Molitor in the Encyclopedia Judaica,

Vol. 12, pp. 227-228.



not yet accepted. And, as in the case of Bernays, they realized the penalty for doing so.

It is paradoxical that after the beginning of the Zionist Movement, certain assimilated Jewish scholars of the 20th

century, searching for a mythical understanding of Judaism, turned for support to the German Romantics. Scholem and

Rosenzweig were not acquainted with the Hebrew language and with Jewish learning in their youth. For them it was Schelling and his school who provided one of the bridges between their world and the ancient Jewish sources of the Kabbala.

Documents

Rivka Horowitz, "Isaac Bernays: Kabbala and Myth"