(MaHaRa"L of Prague). Tiphereth Yisrael [philosophy]

LOEWE, JUDAH BEN BEZALEL.

Daniel Zanetti

Venice

(1599)

FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural columns with male and female busts. On title, censor's signature: Camillo Jaghel 1613 (see Wm. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, pl. 4, no. 2)

Vinograd, Venice 884; Adams J-412

The legendary Maharal of Prague devoted a series of theological works to the cycle of the Jewish year. Thus, we have Gevuroth Hashem on Passover, Tiph’ereth Yisrael on Shavu’oth, Netzach Yisrael on the Fast of the Ninth of Av, Ner Mitzvah on Chanukah, and ‘Or Chadash on Purim. Whether Maharal penned works to the remaining holidays of New Year, the Day of Atonement, and Sukkoth is unknown. Maharal, while couching his works in the philosophical jargon of the day, actually developed a highly original system of thought, which though informed to a degree by the Kabbalah of the Zohar, can in no way be reduced to trends within Jewish mysticism. Rather, Maharal, utilizing as his building blocks the Agadah or non-legal portions of the Talmud, created his own symbology and constructs. In Tiphereth Yisrael, Maharal sets out to establish the uniqueness of Torah among disciplines and of Israel among nations. The works of Maharal were a staple of the spiritual diet of the Polish school of chassidism of Pshyskha-Kotzk-Sochatchov. “Shem mi-Shmuel” by R. Samuel Bornstein, second-generation Rebbe of Sochatchov, is replete with references to Maharal. Closer to our own day, Rabbis A. I. Kook, E.E. Dessler, and especially Isaac Hutner, author “Pachad Yitzhak,” made extensive use of Maharal, to whose in-depth theology they are all heavily indebted. In academic circles, “Etudes Maharaliennes” were initiated by the late Prof. André Neher at the University of Strasbourg. Neher, together with his graduate students, Theo Dreyfus and Benno Gross, produced academic editions of Maharal in French translation.