Jacob Emden
Jacob Emden was a
Jewish
rabbi,
Talmud scholar, and opponent of the
Shabbethaians. He was born at
Altona June 4,
1697, and died there
April 19,
1776.
Until seventeen Emden studied Talmud under his father Rabbi
Tzvi Ashkenazi, the foremost Talmudic authority of the age, first at Altona, then from
1710 to
1714 at
Amsterdam. In
1715 Emden married the daughter of
Mordecai ben Naphtali Kohen, rabbi of
Uhersky Brod,
Moravia, and continued his studies in his father-in-law's
yeshivah. Emden became well versed in Talmudic literature; later he studied
philosophy,
Kabbalah, and
grammar, and made an effort to acquire the
Latin and
Dutch languages, in which, however, he was seriously hindered by his belief that a Jew should occupy himself with secular
sciences only during the hour of twilight.
He was opposed to philosophy, and maintained that
The Guide to the Perplexed could not have been written by
Maimonides, as he could not imagine that a pious
Jew would write a work accepting and promoting what Emden saw as a non-Jewish
theology. (Since this time, most in the Orthodox Jewish community have come to accept philosophy, at least in some forms, as a valid field of study, and nearly all
Orthodox Jews agree that Maimonides was the author of the
Guide to the Perplexed; this is also the view of all historians on this subject.)
Emden spent three years at Ungarish-Brod, where he held the office of private lecturer in Talmud. Then be became a dealer in jewelry and other articles, which occupation compelled him to travel. He generally declined to accept the office of rabbi, though in
1728 he was induced to accept the rabbinate of
Emden, from which place he took his name.
In
1733 Emden returned to Altona, where he obtained the permission of the Jewish community to possess a private synagogue. Emden was at first on friendly terms with Moses Ḥagis, the head of the
Portuguese community at Altona, who was afterward turned against Emden by some calumny. His relations with
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen, the chief rabbi of the German community, were strained from the very beginning. Emden seems to have considered every successor of his father as an intruder.
A few years later Emden obtained from the
King of Denmark the privilege of establishing at Altona a printing-press. He was soon attacked for his publication of the
siddur (prayer book)
Ammude Shamayim, being accused of having dealt arbitrarily with the text. His opponents did not cease denouncing him even after he had obtained for his work the approbation of the chief rabbi of the German communities.
See also: Jonathan EybeschutzEmden is known for his controversial activities, his attacks being generally directed against the adherents, or those he supposed to be adherents, of
Sabbatai Zevi. Of these controversies the most celebrated was that with
Jonathan Eybeschütz, who in Emden's eyes was a convicted Shabbethaian. The controversy lasted several years, continuing even after Eybeschütz's death.
Emden's assertion of the
heresy of his antagonist was chiefly based on the interpretation of some
amulets prepared by Eybeschütz, in which Emden professed to see Shabbethaian allusions. Hostilities began before Eybeschütz left
Prague; when Eybeschütz was named chief rabbi of the three communities of Altona,
Hamburg, and
Wansbeck (
1751), the controversy reached the stage of intense and bitter antagonism. Emden maintained that he was at first prevented by threats from publishing anything against Eybeschütz. He solemnly declared in his synagogue the writer of the amulets to be a Shabbethaian
heretic and deserving of
excommunication.
The majority of the community favoring Eybeschütz, the council condemned Emden as a calumniator. People were ordered, under pain of excommunication, not to attend Emden's
synagogue, and he himself was forbidden to issue anything from his press. As Emden still continued his philippics against Eybeschütz, he was ordered by the council of the three communities to leave Altona. This he refused to do, relying on the strength of the king's charter, and he was, as he maintained, relentlessly persecuted. His life seeming to be in actual danger, he left the town and took refuge in Amsterdam (May 1751), where he had many friends and where he joined the household of his brother-in-law,
Aryeh Löb b. Saul, rabbi of the
Ashkenazic community.
Emden's cause was subsequently taken up by the court of
Frederick V of Denmark, and on June 3, 1752, a judgment was given in favor of Emden, severely censuring the council of the three communities and condemning them to a fine of one hundred
thalers. Emden then returned to Altona and took possession of his synagogue and printing-establishment, though he was forbidden to continue his agitation against Eybeschütz. The latter's partisans, however, did not desist from their warfare against Emden. They accused him before the authorities of continuing to publish denunciations against his opponent. One Friday evening (
July 8,
1755) his house was broken into and his papers seized and turned over to the "Ober-Präsident,"
Von Kwalen. Six months later Von Kwalen appointed a commission of three scholars, who, after a close examination, found nothing which could inculpate Emden.
The truth or falsity of his denunciations against Eybeschütz can not be proved, but the fact remains that he quarreled with almost all his contemporaries. He considered that every man who was not for him was against him, and attacked him accordingly. Still, he enjoyed a certain authority, even among the Polish rabbis. In
1756 the members of the
Synod of Constantinov applied to Emden to aid in repressing the Shabbethaian movement. As the Shabbethaians referred much to the
Zohar, Emden thought it wise to examine that book, and after a careful study he concluded that a great part of the Zohar was the production of an impostor.
Emden's works show him to have been possessed of critical powers rarely found among his contemporaries, who generally took things for granted. He was strictly Orthodox, never deviating the least from tradition, even when the difference in time and circumstance might have fairly been regarded as warranting a deviation from the old custom. In
1772 the
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin having issued a decree forbidding burial on the day of death, the Jews in his territories approached Emden with the request that he demonstrate from the Talmud that a longer exposure of a corpse would be against the Law. Emden referred them to
Mendelssohn, who had great influence with
Christian authorities; but as Mendelssohn agreed with the ducal order, Emden wrote to him and urged the desirability of opposing the duke if only to remove the suspicion of irreligiousness he (Mendelssohn) had aroused by his associations.
Emden was a prolific writer.
*
A Short biography of Rabbi Jacob Emden*
Emden, Jacob Israel Ben Zebi Ashkenazi, jewishencyclopedia.com
*
Jacob Emden, jewishvirtuallibrary.org
