Leopold Zunz. Ismar Schorsch

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СКАЧАТЬ find this lot still unchanged—fragmented, streaming into the Christian religion of necessity [Nothreligion], without backbone or principle, some still clad in old rags shoved aside by Europe, vegetating and with dry eyes looking for the donkey of the Messiah or some other long-eared animal, some thumbing through paper money, others through popular dictionaries, sometimes rich, sometimes bankrupt, sometimes oppressed, sometimes tolerated. Among German Jews their own scholarship [i.e., traditional learning] has died out, and for European scholarship they have no appreciation because they are untrue to themselves, estranged from the very idea and slaves solely to that which is of benefit to them…. In truth the Verein never existed. Five to ten inspired men found each other and like Moses dared to hope in spreading their spirit. But that was a delusion. What alone survives this flood is the science of Judaism. It lives, even if for hundreds of years it lies fallow. I confess that next to my submission to God’s judgment, this science is my comfort and support. These storms and experiences will not bring me into conflict with myself. Because I realized that I was preaching in the wilderness, I stopped preaching so that I would not be disloyal to my own words. Sapiente sat [a word to the wise is sufficient].¹¹³

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      The intensity of Zunz’s engagement with die deutsche Synagoge matched his devotion to the Verein. On May 20, 1820, he began to preach in the modernized worship service in the spacious home of Jacob Herz Beer and continued thereafter every two weeks. Upon receipt of his Prussian citizenship in June 1821, Zunz succeeded two months later in gaining from the synagogue’s directors an official appointment as its Prediger (preacher). Thus in a letter dated August 31, 1821, from Altona, he could proudly inform Adelheid that after their marriage, she would be addressed as “Frau Predigerin” (madam preacher).¹¹⁴

      The importance of that post was that it enjoyed official status. The Prussian government had long loathed private religious services for fear of diminished control, and when the community’s existing Heidereutergasse building required renovation to accommodate a growing membership, the Beer Temple became one of three temporarily sanctioned sites for services.¹¹⁵ The German nomenclature for the innovation expressed the underlying discontent with the incumbent traditional establishment. Indeed in terms of education, function, and authority, the Prediger posed a radical alternative to the religious leadership of the traditional yeshiva-trained rabbi. Until then the usual setting for such breakaway services had been in schools founded by maskilim (enlightened Jews who wrote in Hebrew) since Mendelssohn, which often floundered on the periphery of the organized community.¹¹⁶ At the meeting of the society on July 7, 1822, Gans had proposed that it take the initiative to organize the proliferating preachers throughout Germany into an independent organization in which the Verein would have a nominal presence through two deputies. While Zunz supported the idea, Rubo argued against it on the grounds that the action would violate the warning of the government to stay out of matters religious (Cultus) and that the office of Prediger was still too unstable and ephemeral. An eight-to-three vote approved the proposal, but like many of the Verein’s bright ideas, it died aborning.¹¹⁷ At its next meeting, Gans, on a roll, proposed having Zunz’s scholarly institute vet the candidates applying to preach at the High Holy Day and Passover services of the biannual Leipzig fairs with their aggregate of Jews from all over Europe. That proposal too was approved, along with the amendment that only preachers or men conversant with Hebrew literature be allowed to conduct the evaluations.¹¹⁸

      There was good reason for the society to take up the cause, if ever so carefully, for die deutsche Synagoge; worship had much greater resonance than Wissenschaft. In 1820 Zunz had been invited to preach in Leipzig at the dedication of its German worship service on Shmini Atseret. On October 3, at the end of the festival, an elated Zunz wrote Ehrenberg an upbeat report, whose rich details limn the scope and political import of liturgical reform as well as Zunz’s own religious posture. The nascent reform services in Hamburg, where the Verein had its only official branch, inspired the initiative in Leipzig, and the participation of four children from Hamburg who had come specifically for the dedication, highlighted the patrimony. The University of Leipzig accommodated the group with space on its premises. On Simhat Torah Joseph Wolf delivered the sermon, while Zunz led the German parts of the service, read the Torah, and accepted the honor of completing the annual public cycle of Torah reading with the final chapter of Deuteronomy (Hatan Torah). A Jew from Brody later expressed his delight with Zunz’s Torah reading, which Zunz told Ehrenberg he did with grammatical precision but no cantillation. Zunz also related that on Simhat Torah he observed the Hasidim from Shklov at their services auctioning off the recitation of biblical verses while “smoking, yelling, eating and singing like the barbarians in New Zealand.”

      But Leipzig did more than nourish his contempt. The infectious promise of liturgical reform to advance the prospects of emancipation stirred his political imagination:

      The effect of this never-before-seen celebration is indescribable. You can compare it to a storm, whose whirlwind erupts in one spot and then moves on taking everything with it. Polish Jews, [along with] others either pious, or enlightened, or from abroad, and even Christians, etc.—none were unsatisfied—and word thereof is going out to all parts of Germany with yesterday’s or today’s mail. Both dedicatory sermons will be printed. Thus far those who attended our services came from 30 cities, including Lissa, Brody, Bucharest, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Elberfeld, Cracow, Cassel, Florence, Amsterdam and Frankfurt on the Main. I hope the institution will last and exert no small influence on Breslau, where a synagogue is now being built. Indeed, a Jew from Fürth intends to gather signatures for a German synagogue…. Aren’t there men in Braunschweig who could advocate the creation of a reformed worship service? Precisely at this moment, we should be collecting signatures in Seesen, Wolfenbüttel, Blankenburg and Gandersheim. In fact, I will argue that we do exactly that so that the German Bundestag might realize just who and how many favor a German synagogue. We should not be deterred by their small number, for I hope their stature will outweigh the number.¹¹⁹

      In other words, it was vital that German officialdom be made aware of the religious transformation underway. The German synagogue proved not only that Judaism was rapidly adapting itself to German modes of belief and practice but also that Jews were amply ready to assume the responsibilities of citizenship. Zunz’s Leipzig sermon on “The Call to Proceed” propounded the need to shift away from rabbis to prophets, from law to morality, from external piety to inwardness, and from particularism to universalism. What God demands of us is deeds not words, dignity and decorum rather than wild outbursts, and love of God and our fellow human: “For whenever we have wrought something great or written something beautiful, it was neither passivity nor laziness, neither sensuousness nor selfishness that created it, but rather intellectual energy, rational thought and unlimited trust in God.”¹²⁰ Zunz’s tight-knit sermon displayed that he was no stranger to the genre. His language was measured, his sentences cadenced, and his ideas sharply articulated. The palpable sincerity of his conviction, moreover, animated the whole.

      Toward the end of August 1821, Zunz, in need of a break, went with Gans and Rubo to Hamburg, ostensibly on Verein business. The composition of the group prompted Gans to entertain Moser later with the following sardonic quip: “Three Jewish doctors on a journey squeezed into a coach, each with four letters to his name, and not an M.D. among them!”¹²¹ Though Zunz was particularly glum and uncommunicative during the two-day journey, his invigorating month-long stay firmed up his resolve to work for the welfare of German Jewry. Shortly after his arrival and the warm reception accorded him, he shared with Adelheid, still only his fiancée, his excitement at being part of a movement that extended far beyond Berlin:

      I am pressed from all sides to preach here at least once. But I have not decided yet…. I am fascinated here by the convergence of the German worship service with matters pertaining to the Jews. Berlin, Breslau, Vienna, Leipzig and southern Germany are all in constant contact with the business life here. And the activity ignited by the god Mercury serves the interests of Jehovah. But the greatest plus is that this place has a few proactive, eager, knowledgeable and determined men, who do not wait till they are pushed, but act on their СКАЧАТЬ