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

1748/1749年，下萨克森州塞勒的受过教育的犹太商人艾萨克·韦茨拉尔(1685/90-1751年)用意第绪语完成了一部宗教伦理改革论文--《利布斯贿赂》(情书)。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，包括紧急呼吁宗教伦理复兴，并提出了改革犹太社会的建议。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。这个跨学科项目以《利伯斯布里夫》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唯心主义的关系。无论在形式还是内容上，维茨拉尔的《利布斯贿赂》似乎确实受到了基督教《情书》(通常是用意第绪语写的)的影响，这封情书是虔诚派用来传教中欧犹太人的，用胡萝卜代替大棒。韦茨拉采用了宗教信仰和生活方式的神学概念和理想。在虔诚主义的背景下，对伦理文献(穆萨尔)和早期哈斯卡拉赫(用意第绪语、希伯来语、德语和荷兰语写成)的额外文本进行比较分析，有助于更好地理解犹太人关于社会改革和宗教复兴的概念，特别是教育改革，它们与宗教改革方案惊人地相似。除了一种新的文化和文学史分类《利伯斯布里夫》，虽然从未印刷，但在丰富的手稿传统下传给了我们，该项目将在所有现存手稿的基础上准备一个批判性和注释版，并有德文翻译。

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.