Derush Tephilath Yesharim [sermon for Shabbath Shuva].

EMDEN, YA’AKOV.

By the Author

Altona

1775

FIRST EDITION. Two parts in one.

Vinograd, Altona 110.

Tephilath Yesharim contains the text of a sermon delivered by R. Jacob Emden in 1731 when he served as rabbi of Altona and environs. Its theme is the necessity for humility, especially for those occupying public office. The sermon was generated due to tensions between Emden and the lay leaders of the Altona community which eventually led to his removal from office, a role he occupied for just five years - and indeed chose to never go back to for the rest of his life. The second part of the book, subtitled “Choli Kerthem,” R. Emden has occasion to return to his perennial focus, the abuse of Kabbalah by the crypto-Sabbatians of the day, namely “[Moses David] Podheitser and Ze'ev [Wolf] Eybeschützer.” (Wolf was the younger son of R. Jonathan Eybeschütz, who presented himself as a Sabbatian prophet; Podheitser, was a close associate of R. Eybeschütz in Hamburg.) Though “certainly Chochmath Ha’Emeth [Kabbalah] is the soul of the Torah,” it has been infested by “snakes and scorpions,” that is, followers of Shabthai Tzvi (f. 23). See G. Scholem, Kabbalah (1974) pp. 282, 406.