The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) | Page 4

end of the fourteenth and the
fifteenth century crushed the Jewish communities in Spain and in the
Provence, they yet did not succeed in annihilating completely the
intellectual traditions of the Spanish and French Jews. Remnants of
Jewish science and Jewish literature were carried by the refugees into
the countries of their adoption, and in the Netherlands, in Turkey, even
in Palestine, schools were founded after a short interval.
But a literary revival was possible only in Italy. Elsewhere, in the
backward countries of the North and the East, the Jews, smarting from
blows recently inflicted, withdrew within themselves. They took refuge
in the most sombre of mysticisms, or, at least, in dogmatism of the
narrowest kind. The Italian Jewish communities, thanks to the more
bearable conditions prevailing around them, were in a position to carry
on the literary traditions of Jewish Spain. In Italy thinkers arose, and
writers, and poets. There was Azariah dei Rossi, the father of historical
criticism; Messer Leon, the subtle philosopher; Elijah Levita, the
grammarian; Leon of Modena, the keen-witted rationalist; Joseph
Delmedigo, of encyclopedic mind; the Frances brothers, both poets,
who combated mysticism; and many others too numerous to mention.
[Footnote: For the greater part of these writers, see Gustav Karpeles,
_Geschichte der jüdischen Literatur_, 2 vols., Berlin, 1886.] These,
together with a few stray writers in Turkey and the Netherlands,
imparted a certain degree of distinction to the Hebrew literature of the
sixteenth and the seventeenth century. Heirs to the Spanish traditions,
they nevertheless were inclined to oppose the spirit and particularly the
rules of Arabic prosody, which had put manacles upon Hebrew poetry.
Their efforts were directed to the end of introducing new literary forms
and new concepts into Hebrew literature.
They did not meet with notable success. The greater number of Jewish
men of letters, whose knowledge of foreign literatures was meagre,
were destined to remain in the thrall of the Middle Ages until a much
later time. As to the unlettered, they preferred to make use of the
vernacular, which presented fewer difficulties than the Hebrew.
The task of tearing asunder the chains that hampered the evolution of

Hebrew in a modern sense devolved upon an Italian Jew of amazing
talent. He became the true, the sovereign inaugurator of the Hebrew
Renascence.
Moses Hayyim Luzzatto was born at Padua, in 1707. He was descended
from a family celebrated for the Rabbinic scholars and the writers it
had given to Judaism, a celebrity which it has continued to earn for
itself down to our own day.
His education was strictly Rabbinic, consisting chiefly of the study of
the Talmud, under the direction of a Polish teacher, for the Polish
Rabbis had attained to a position of great esteem as early as Luzzatto's
day. He lost little time in initiating his pupil into the mysteries of the
Kabbalah, and so the early childhood years of our poet were a sad time
spent in the stifling atmosphere of the ghetto. Happily for him, it was
an Italian ghetto, whence secular learning had not been banished
completely.
While pursuing his religious studies, the child became acquainted with
the Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages and with the Italian literature of
his own time. In the latter accomplishment lies his superiority to the
Hebrew scholars of other countries, who were shut off from every
outside influence, and held fast to obsolete forms and ideas.
From early youth Luzzatto showed remarkable aptitude for poetry. At
the age of seventeen he composed a drama in verse entitled "Samson
and Delilah". A little later he published a work on prosody, Leshon
Limmudim ("The Language of Learners", Mantua, 1727), and dedicated
it to his Polish teacher. The young man then decided to break with the
poetry of the Middle Ages, which hampered the development of the
Hebrew language. His allegorical drama, _Migdal 'Oz_ ("The Tower of
Victory"), inspired by the Pastor fido of Guarini, was the first token of
this reform. Its style is marked by an elegance and vividness not
attained since the close of the Bible. [Footnote: Though it was widely
circulated in manuscript, _Migdal 'Oz_ did not appear in print until
1837, at Leipsic, edited by M. H. Letteris.] In spite of its prolixity and
the absence of all dramatic action, it continues to this day to make its
appeal to the fancy of the literary. A poetic breath animates it, and it is

characterized by the artistic taste that is one of the distinctions of its
author.
It was a new world that _Migdal 'Oz_, by its laudation of rural life,
disclosed to the votaries of a literature the most enlightened
representatives of which refused to see in the Song of Songs anything
but religious symbolism, so far had their appreciation of reality and
nature degenerated.
In