Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism PDF
Preview Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism
Moses Mendelssohn JERUSALEM OR ON RELIGIOUS POWER AND JUDAISM D BY Allan Arkush TRANSLATE INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY Alexander Altmann JERUSALEM Moses Mendelssohn JERUSALEM OR ON RELIGIOUS POWER AND JUDAISM TRANSLATED BY Allan Arkush INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY Alexander Altmann BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS Waltham, Massachusetts Published by University Press of New England Hanover and London BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by University Press of New England One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766 www.upne.com © 1983 by Trustees of Brandeis University All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Members of educational institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publish- ers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766. University Press of New England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meeting their minimum requirement for recycled paper. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Translations Program of the National Endowment of the Humanities in the publication of this book. Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 CIP data appear at the end of the book ISBN: 978-0-87451-264-9 CONTENTS TRANSLATOR S PREFACE Vll INTRODUCTION 1 MENDELSSOHN'S JERUSALEM 31 COMMENTARY 141 ABBREVIATED REFERENCES 241 APPENDIX: DRAFT OF JERUSALEM 247 INDEX 249 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE T HERE exist three previous translations of Moses Men- delssohn's Jerusalem into English: M. Samuels (Lon- don, 1838), I. Leeser (Philadelphia, 1853), and A. Jospe (New York, 1969). The merit of these transla- tions is not in dispute and is gratefully acknowledged. However, a new, more philosophically exact rendition of Jerusalem is an urgent desideratum. Recent progress in Mendelssohn research has sharpened our awareness of the subtle shades of meaning in the text. The precision in terminology which characterizes the entire work has become manifest. The present translation is based on the editio princeps (Berlin, 1783). Its aim is complete fidelity to the text without detriment to the character of the English language. The temptation to "im- prove" the clarity of Mendelssohn's thought' by paraphrasing it has been carefully resisted. No attempt has been made to make Mendelssohn sound contemporary. The reader is entitled to a translation that authentically reflects a distinguished eighteenth- century text in all its preciseness. It is for the reader to judge whether this goal has been achieved. ALLAN ARKUSH
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