Mischnah. Oder der Text des Talmuds.

Moses Mendelssohn, the fundamentally important thinker of the Enlightenment who was drawn to philosophy and German culture, maintained throughout his life complete loyalty to Judaism and great respect for the rabbinical tradition. When the project of a German translation of the entire Mishnah by Johann Jacob Rabe was announced in 1759, Mendelssohn took the opportunity to defend the study of the maligned Talmud. He wrote anonymously in the Litteraturbriefe: “On no account can I persuade myself that the best minds of a nation should have occupied themselves throughout so many centuries exclusively with a work consisting of insipid rubbish. The immense diligence with which they study it and the oriental ardor that I have so often seen displayed when they argue some of its subjects would seem proof to me that a man of genius can find all he needs for nourishment in this kind of study.” Rabe appreciated this review and included it complete with Mendelssohn’s notes, in his Foreword to Part II of his Mishnah translation. In introducing the anonymous Rabbi (i. e., Moses Mendelssohn), Rabe felt moved to bestow upon him the celebrated compliment previously reserved for Moses Maimonides: “From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses” (Von Mose bis auf Mose sene nicht gewesen wie dieser Mose) (Foreword, top p. 2). See A. Altmann, Moses Mendelssohn (1973) pp. 196-97, 210. Meyer, M.: The Origins of the Modern Jew (1967) p. 21.