Mitzpeh Yokthe’el [bitter polemic against Raphael Hakohen’s Torath Yekuthiel]

(BERLIN, SAUL) “Ovadiah ben Baruch”

Chevrath Chinuch Ne’arim, for David Friedlaender

Berlin

1789

FIRST EDITION.

Vinograd, Berlin 381; Mehlman 1717

Within Berlin’s complex personality lay a combination of reverence for traditional Rabbinism as well as an attraction toward the progressive ideas of Mendelssohn and Wessely. However, the extreme personal nature of the author’s pseudonymous attack in this work resulted in the almost complete destruction of all copies. Berlin’s father was Hart Lyon, the respected Rabbi of the Great and Hambro Synagogues in London; his brother, Solomon Hirschel was elected Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. Indeed, it was to London that Berlin eventually fled Continental Europe, dying there in 1794, wholly misunderstood. See M. Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Jewish History (1977) pp.157-59.