Shirath Todah ve-Ahavath [“A Poem in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Our Teacher Rabbi Isaac Chaim Heilbronn”]

(GERMANY).

Magdeburg

1822

Manuscript in Hebrew. Aschkenazic script, vowel-pointed

The Jewish community of Magdeburg was one of the oldest in Germany, going back to the tenth century. The famous R. Chaim ben Paltiel, a correspondent of R. Meir of Rothenburg, served as its spiritual leader at the end of the thirteenth century. This glorious tradition came to an end in 1493 with the order of expulsion from Magdeburg. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Jewish community was reconstituted. The first rabbi of the reconstituted community was our honoree R. Isaac Heilbronn. This magificent gift of a celebratory poem - introduced by learned citations from Talmud and a wealth of later Jewish literature on the significance of the seventieth birthday - was offered to Rabbi Heilbronn by Zalman Breit, prayer leader and “ne’eman” [notary] of the community. On f.4v. Breit cites “Hacham Isaac Bernays of Hamburg in his German book published anonymously.” The footnote refers to Der Biblische Orient. Actually, this attribution to Hacham Bernays (1792-1849) is a matter of dispute. Many consider the book to be the work of Kalb, a Christian friend of Bernays. Isaac Heinemann maintains Bernay’s authorship on the ground that the content of the work conforms to Bernays’ views. EJ, Vol. IV, col. 673