lethargic_man | Entries tagged with philippson

You're viewing

lethargic_man's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: light

I've posted before about Rabbi Ludwig Philippson's 1844 commentary on the Torah, which I have been reading my way through since Simchas Torah in 2017, and am now nearly finished.

One of the things I didn't mention in my previous post is his ability to find patterns in what seems an arbitrary sequence. I've been meaning for a while to translate and post two extended essays of his on these lines, one pulling an overarching Divine plan out of the entire historical sequence from the beginning of the Torah up to the revelation at Sinai, and another finding meaning and pattern out of the design of the portable Tabernacle, but these are going to take a huge amount of effort and time which I don't really have, so I've been displacing from them for a long time.

However, I recently came across a much shorter example, so I would like to post it now. It's from Moses' farewell blessing in Deuteronomy 33, specifically his blessing of the tribe of Levi. The Torah text reads:

( Read more... )

Some time ago, when a friend WinoLJ/DW saw me reading my way through the Torah commentary of Rabbi Ludwig Philippson—the original edition of the chumash used in my shul, the modern edition of which on the bookshelves contains no commentary—she asked me what kind of commentary it was. Not having assembled any thoughts beforehand, all I could do was answer "er..." Since I never answered her properly, it occurs to me that I could do so here, to a wider, but hopefully also interested, audience.

( Read more... )