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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Order Number 8909036 Rabbi Jacob Emden: Life and major works Schacter, Jacob Joseph, Ph.D. Harvard University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Schacter, Jacob Joseph. All rights reserved. U M I 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. HARVARD UNIVERSITY THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THESIS ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE (To be placed in Original Copy) The undersigned, appointed by the Division Department Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Committee have examined a thesis entitled Rabbi Jacob Emden: Life and Major Works presented by Jacob Joseph Schacter candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that it is worthy of acceptance. Signature Typed name Bernard..Septimus. Signature Typed name Isadar.e...Tw.ersky. Signature .... Typed name q September 15, 1988 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. RABBI JACOB EMDEN: LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS A thesis presented by Jacob Joseph Schacter to The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts September, 1988 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (c) 1988 by Jacob Joseph Schacter All rights reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Jewish life in eighteenth-century Europe was characterized by a number of significant features. Rabbinic scholarship flourished on a high level in many parts of the continent. In addition, the Jewish com­ munity was caught up in the aftershock of the mass messianic movement of Shabbetai Zevi which had captured the imagination of most of world Jewry in 1665-1666. Those who continued to maintain their belief in him even after his conversion and death were constantly being harassed by the Jewish establishment which considered them heretics. Finally, the end of the century brought with it the Haskalah movement which challenged the prevailing Jewish communal, social, religious and intellectual norms. One of the most dominant figures at that time was Rabbi Jacob Emden (1698-1776). Emden was intimately involved with each of these major elements in the Jewish world of his day. Reared in a learned home, he was a preeminent scholar whose achievement in the field of rabbinic lit­ erature was substantive and significant. He also played a major role in the eighteenth-century battle against Sabbatianism and, in the last two and a half decades of his life, became obsessed with ejqposing and hound­ ing any vestige of the movement. Finally, he lived long enough to wit­ ness the emergence of the Haskalah. Unlike some of his more traditional colleagues, Emden was sensitive to the shifting nuances of thought repre­ sented by that movement and was aware of the changes in Jewish life that it potentially represented. This work treats Emden from all of these perspectives. In addition Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to presenting the story of his life for the first time, it also describes some of his rabbinic works as well as his attitude towards non-Jews, philosophy and Maimonides. It suggests some factors which should be considered in attempting to understand the virulence of Emden's anti- Sabbatianism. Finally, it assesses the level of his knowledge of a wide range of extra-Talmudic disciplines and his attitude towards the emerging Haskalah movement. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.