Abstracts
Abstract
This year, 2024, is the 500th anniversary of Caspar Amman’s passing. The German priest and Hebraist kept records of nineteen letters in Hebrew. The letters portray not only a picture of scholarly early modern Jewish–Christian collaboration, as Eric Zimmer has shown, but also an attempt by at least one Jewish rabbi to initiate a dialogue with the German priest. The exceptional letter, addressed to Caspar Amman by Rabbi Moshe Elchanan Bacharach from Swabia, was hitherto not translated into English and barely referenced in the literature. This and additional letters, sixteen in total, are published here for the first time in English (in the appendix). The epistolary corpus reflects mutual respect and appreciation, a shared love for the Hebrew language and the Hebrew book, and the use, by Hebraists, of the title “rabbi” to mark respect and appreciation. Given Gershom Scholem’s denial of any historic German–Jewish dialogue—or, alternatively, irrespective of it—these buds of a Christian–Jewish dialogue appear like rays of light piercing the darkness. Still, they could not withstand the spirit of the time.
Keywords:
- Interreligious Dialogue,
- Hebraism,
- Caspar Amman,
- Johannes Reuchlin,
- Hebrew,
- Kabbalah,
- Rabbi Moshe Elchanan Bacharach
Résumé
L’année 2024 marque le 500e anniversaire de la mort de Caspar Amman. Ce prêtre allemand hébraïsant conservait dans ses archives dix-neuf lettres en langue hébraïque. Celles-ci mettent en évidence non seulement la collaboration entre lettrés juifs et chrétiens dans les premiers temps modernes, ainsi que l’a montré Eric Zimmer, mais aussi une tentative par au moins un rabbin juif d’engager un dialogue avec le prêtre allemand. Cette lettre exceptionnelle, adressée à Caspar Amman par le rabbin souabe Moshe Elchanan Bacharach, n’avait jamais encore été traduite en anglais, et c’est à peine si elle avait été évoquée par les commentateurs. Seize lettres, dont cette dernière, paraissent ici pour la première fois en anglais (voir en annexe). Ce corpus épistolaire témoigne d’une estime et d’un respect mutuels, d’un amour partagé pour la langue et le livre hébraïques, et de l’usage que faisaient les hébraïsants du titre de « rabbin » pour signifier leur respect et leur estime. Étant donné que Gershom Scholem niait tout dialogue historique entre Juifs et Allemands – ou même sans tenir compte de ce déni –, ces bourgeons d’un dialogue judéo-chrétien apparaissent comme des traits de lumière dissipant l’obscurité, sans parvenir toutefois à vaincre l’esprit du temps.
Appendices
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