MENDELSSOHN, MOSES.

S. Freund

Prague

1860-62

Nethivoth Hashalom vehu Chamishah Chumshei Torah [The Pentateuch; with Haphtaroth and Five Megiloth]. Translated and with Bi’ur commentary. Along with commentaries by Moshe Segal Landau (grandson of the Noda BeYehuda) and Wolf Meyer. Each volume with supplement of the Sabbath prayers.

Vinograd, Prague 1524.

Titled Sepher Nethivoth Hashalom and more commonly known as the Bi’ur, Moses Mendelssohn’s revolutionary translation of the Pentateuch appeared in German in Hebrew characters while the commentary was composed in Hebrew. The commentary aimed to explain the translation choices made by Mendelssohn and drew heavily on traditional medieval Jewish Bible commentators. The translation, written in an elegant High German, was designed to enable the Jews of Germany to come closer to “general culture by giving them the best translation of the Holy Book that they ever had.” (Preface).