CARO, DAVID “Amittai ben Avidah Achizedek.” Brith Emeth [polemic]

AUCTION 13 | Tuesday, June 26th, 2001 at 1:00

Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts Together With Fine Graphic and Ceremonial Art

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Lot 377

(REFORM).

CARO, DAVID “Amittai ben Avidah Achizedek.” Brith Emeth [polemic]

FIRST EDITION. Two parts in one. pp. (2), 146. Foxed. Latter half-morocco, gently rubbed at edges, lower portion of spine detached. Lg. 8vo Vinograd, Dessau 79

Constantinople (i.e. Dessau): n.p. 1820

Est: $500 - $700

PRICE REALIZED $400

Published following the controversy over the opening of Israel Jacobsohn’s Hamburg Temple in 1818 - the first established Reform synagogue. The first part of the book is divided into three sections: letters to friends concerning questions of religion and ethics; a defense of the changes introduced in the reformed synagogues; and a critique of the pamphlet Eileh Divrei Habrith (1818) that denounced these new practices. The second part of the work strongly criticizes the state of the contemporary rabbinate. Brith Emeth was the first outright attack by a Haskalah writer upon the rabbinate of his time.