Yiddish, the Language of Love: Isaac Wetzlar's Libes Briv (1748/49) in the Context of Pietism, Enlightenment and Ethical Literature

1748年至1749年，下萨克森州塞勒受过良好教育的犹太商人艾萨克·韦茨拉（Isaac Wetzlar， 1685年至1751年）用意第绪语完成了一部宗教伦理改革论文《情书》（Libes brief）。在他去世前不久，韦茨拉向他的中欧犹太兄弟姐妹发表了尖锐的社会批评，包括迫切呼吁宗教伦理的复兴，以及对犹太社会进行改革的建议。除了教育改革，韦茨拉主张回归犹太教的基本价值观：虔诚的祈祷、忏悔、善行和兄弟之爱。该跨学科项目以《简讯》和其他精选的18世纪作品为基础，探索中欧犹太教与当代德国虔诚主义的关系。在形式和内容上，韦茨拉的《简短的自由》似乎确实受到了基督教“情书”（通常用意第语写的）的影响，虔信派在寻求“用胡萝卜代替大棒”向中欧犹太人传教时使用了这封情书。韦茨拉采用了神学概念和虔信派宗教信仰和生活方式的理想。在虔信派的背景下，分别对伦理文学（mussar）和早期哈斯卡拉（以意第绪语、希伯来语、德语和荷兰语写成）的附加文本进行比较分析，有助于更好地理解犹太人的社会改革和宗教复兴概念，特别是教育改革，这与虔信派的改革计划惊人地相似。除了一种新的文化和文学历史分类的“简明手稿”，虽然从未印刷过，但在丰富的手稿传统中流传下来，该项目将在所有现存手稿的基础上准备一个批判和注释的版本，并附有德语翻译。

In 1748/49, the educated Jewish businessman Isaac Wetzlar (1685/90-1751) of Celle in Lower Saxony, completed a religious-ethical reform treatise in Yiddish, "Libes briv" (Love letter). Shortly before his death, Wetzlar addressed his Central European Jewish brothers and sisters with sharp social criticism, including an urgent call for religious-ethical renewal, and proposals for the reform of Jewish society. Apart from educational reforms, Wetzlar argues for a return to the essential values of Judaism: devoted prayer, penitence, good deeds and brotherly love. Based on the "Libes briv" and other selected 18th-century works, the interdisciplinary project explores the relationship of Central European Judaism with contemporary German Pietism. In both form and content, Wetzlar's "Libes briv" seems indeed to be influenced by the Christian "Love Letter" (often written in Yiddish) that Pietists employed in their quest of missionizing the Jews of Central Europe "with a carrot in lieu of the stick." Wetzlar adopts theological concepts and ideals of Pietist religiosity and lifestyle. The comparative analysis of additional texts of ethical literature (mussar) and the early Haskalah respectively (written in Yiddish, Hebrew, German and Dutch) in the context of Pietism contributes to the better understanding of the Jewish concepts for social reform and religious renewal in general, and an educational reform in particular, which are strikingly similar to Pietist reform programs. Besides a new cultural and literary historical classification of "Libes briv" which, while never printed, has come down to us in a rich manuscript tradition, the project will prepare a critical and annotated edition on the basis of all extant manuscripts, with a German translation.