Given Leopold Zunz’s difficult German style and the tight conciseness of his presentation, it is hardly surprising that no English translation of his Die Ritus (1859) has been published. The Hebrew edition of 2016 does not aim to place this pioneering work in the context of Jewish liturgical history, sometimes opts for a paraphrase, rather than a literal translation, and does not always make it easy to distinguish Zunz from later scholarship. There are undoubtedly English-speaking scholars in current academia who are unacquainted with German and Modern Hebrew but would benefit from reading this classic study. This volume therefore links Die Ritus with Zunz’s other scholarly works by way of a brief introduction, provides a faithful translation, without the result reading more like German than English. It reproduces Zunz’s footnotes in his own highly abbreviated form but offers as an appendix to the introductory essay a bibliographical list that explains references that may not be obvious even to a learned reader. Readers of English will now be able to reach their own conclusions about the stature of Zunz, about his contributions to the study of Jewish liturgy, and, indeed, about any shortcomings that there may have been in his scholarly, theological and political tendencies.
Given Leopold Zunz’s difficult German style and the tight conciseness of his presentation, it is hardly surprising that no English translation of his Die Ritus (1859) has been published. The Hebrew edition of 2016 does not aim to place this pioneering work in the context of Jewish liturgical history, sometimes opts for a paraphrase, rather than a literal translation, and does not always make it easy to distinguish Zunz from later scholarship. There are undoubtedly English-speaking scholars in current academia who are unacquainted with German and Modern Hebrew but would benefit from reading this classic study. This volume therefore links Die Ritus with Zunz’s other scholarly works by way of a brief introduction, provides a faithful translation, without the result reading more like German than English. It reproduces Zunz’s footnotes in his own highly abbreviated form but offers as an appendix to the introductory essay a bibliographical list that explains references that may not be obvious even to a learned reader. Readers of English will now be able to reach their own conclusions about the stature of Zunz, about his contributions to the study of Jewish liturgy, and, indeed, about any shortcomings that there may have been in his scholarly, theological and political tendencies.
This will help us customize your experience to showcase the most relevant content to your age group
Please select from below
Login
Not registered?
Sign up
Already registered?
Success – Your message will goes here
We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.