Modern Hebrew Classics
David Patterson, Series Editor
This series presents formative works of lasting significance that appeared in Hebrew between 1819 and 1939, as well as more recent critical work. The series is designed to acquaint the English reader with the quality of modern Hebrew writing in its period of revival and renaissance and to reflect the cultural, religious, and social conditions and conflicts in Jewish life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Joseph Perl's Revealer of Secrets: The First Hebrew Novel, translated with an introduction and notes by Dov Taylor
Tradition and Trauma: Studies in the Fiction of S. J. Agnon, edited by David Patterson and Glenda Abramson
The World of Israel Weissbrem, translated by Alan D. Crown
Out of the Depths, Joseph Chaim Brenner, translated by David Patterson
First published 1997 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright 1997 by Dov Taylor
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A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-00977-9 (hbk)
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Had I not lifted up the shard for you would you have found the pearl beneath it?
This translation of Joseph Perl's Megall Temirin, together with the sections preceding and following it, reflects the convergence of lifelong interests in Jewish thought, language and literature.
I am indebted to my teachers at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and Brandeis University, especially Abraham Aaroni, Chanan Brichto, Harry M. Orlinsky, Martin S. Rozenberg, Ezra Spicehandler and Chaim Brandwein, who filled me with love for the Hebrew language and its literature, and Joshua Rothenberg and Robert Szulkin, who made learning Yiddish a joy. Marc Saperstein, Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought at Washington University, first made me aware of Megall Temirin and its historical, literary and linguistic significance and suggested that I consider translating it. I have benefited from his friendly encouragement and profound erudition throughout this project. Chanan Brichto graciously read my manuscript and offered several incisive suggestions.
The translation and notes were essentially completed at The Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies (now The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies), where I was a Visiting Scholar during the first half of 1992. For this opportunity and so many others, I am grateful to David Patterson, founder and emeritus president of the Centre and renowned authority on modern Hebrew literature.
The scholarly researches of Shmuel Werses, Chone Shmeruk, Avraham Rubinstein, Zelig Kalmanovitch and David Patterson constitute by far the most extensive and significant critical literature on the works of Joseph Perl in general and Revealer of Secrets in particular. The influence of their work is present throughout this book.
My research was facilitated by the cooperation of the libraries at The Oxford Centre, The Bodleian, The British Museum, University College, London, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, The Jewish Theological Seminary, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The New York Public Library, Hebrew Theological College, Lake Forest College, Congregation Solel and The City of Highland Park. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the generous assistance of Dan Sharon and Michael Terry, Reference Librarian and Director, respectively, of The Asher Library at Spertus.
So very many individuals have deepened my understanding and earned my thanks. Prominent among them are Shmuel Werses, Yehuda Leibes and Mendel Piekaz of The Hebrew University; Chimen Abramski, Ada Rapoport-Albert and Hugh Denman of University College, London; Dina Abramovits of YIVO; Arthur Green of Brandeis University; Chaim Kramer of the Breslov Research Institute; Pinchas Giller of Washington University; Sid Leiman of The City University of New York; Alan M. Stahl of The American Numismatic Society; Yehoshua Eichenstein, descendant of the Zhidochever Rebbe, Hirsh Eichenstein; William H. Lebeau of The Jewish Theological Seminary; Linda Morley and Joseph Tabachnik. For assistance with Yiddish, especially Perl's Yiddish Prologue, I am grateful to David Roskies of JTS, Dov-Ber Kerler of The Oxford Centre, Mordkhe Schaechter of The League for Yiddish, Anita Turtletaub and Pearl Kahan. Yolanta Kissler Goldstein and Boris Dragunsky were my consultants for Polish and Russian, respectively, and Chaim Stern initiated me into the mysteries of Hebrew word-processing.
I salute the people of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, who see Jewish learning as a lifelong pursuit for themselves no less than for their rabbi, and all my friends and students at Solel who have inspired me. In particular, I wish to acknowledge Mike Kohn, without whose support this project could never have been undertaken; Joseph Radov, the quintessential maskil, Yiddishist and bibliophile; Michael Ebner, Linda Janzen, Billie Hanig, Natalie Belrose, Joanne Scheff, David Levinson, Dottie Zoller, Stanley Kaplan and Arthur Lazar.
The translation and Introduction are finer thanks to the suggestions of my wife, Judith Taylor, who has a poet's ear for language; my daughter, Yael, whose words sing; and my son, Jesse, whose music speaks.
Clearly, whatever light shines through this work has been amplified by many contributors. I alone am responsible for any obscurities.
The challenge of translating Megall Temirin for the English reader turned out to be a detective story in its own right. In the novel, the asidim try to get their hands on the bukh and its author, while the reader is simultaneously invited to search for the real-life identities of the author and his fictional protagonists. In attempting to translate the novel into English, it soon became apparent that language was only the beginning, that there were meanings behind allusions behind meanings. Even the significance of many things that would have been clear to the author's enlightened contemporaries has been obscured by the passage of almost two centuries of upheaval in Jewish life.
