Shailoth Ya’avetz.

EMDEN, YA’AKOV.

Jacob Emden

Altona

1739 and 1770

FIRST EDITIONS. Two volumes.

Vinograd, Altona 35 and 63.

In these responsa, one finds the controversialist R. Jacob Emden (1697-1776) - largely known today for his campaigns against R. Jonathan Eybeschuetz, R. Moses Chaim Luzzatto, and others - in the the more sedate role of supreme halachic authority. Of special interest is R. Emden's responsum to "Moshe of Dessau," i.e. the Berlin philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (Pt. II, responsa nos. 155-156), whom he addresses as "gever chacham be’oz" (an exceedingly wise man). (Mendelssohn had offered a solution to a difficulty raised by Emden in his work Lechem Shamayim, a commentary to the Mishnah. See A. Altmann, Moses Mendelssohn (1973), pp. 209-210). Also noteworthy are the biographical details R. Emden frequently provides. For example, in the introduction to Pt. I, he surmises that the bout of depression his father, Chacham Tzvi, experienced when R. Emden was born, influenced his own surly disposition. See EJ, Vol. VI, cols. 721-24). Both Raphael and Vinograd provide 1759 as the date of publication of Vol II, which is obviously erroneous, for the exchange between Mendelssohn and Emden took place in 1770. See Altmann, p. 793, n. 5.