Alexander Kohut
Alexander Kohut is a rabbi progressive and Orientalist of the nineteenth century ( Kiskunflegyhza , Hungary , April 22, 1842 - New York May 25, 1894).
Summary |
Biographical Elements
Early years
Alexander (Yehuda Hanoch) Kohut comes from a long line of rabbis, in which there are illustrated his great-grandfather, Rabbi Israel Palota, Rabbi Amram ("The Gaon," in allusion to Amram Gaon ) died at Safed , in the land of Israel, where he had spent the last years of his life and his great-uncle, Rabbi Chayyim Kitssee, rabbi Ezra and author of several books rabbinical.
His father, Jacob Kohut, though himself a great scholar, was so poor that they can not provide any education or secular or religious, to her son before his eight years of age. It was during their move to Kecskemet Alexander began to frequent the gym, studying the Talmud with an old scholar, Reb Gershom Loving. Its mission is reflected in its fifteenth year, when he tries to decipher a few foreign words in the Talmud with the Landau Dictionary: he conceived the idea of writing a complete lexicon of the Talmud, not having found the etymology of many words in the Landau.
Hungarian Years
After leaving the Gymnasium Kecskemet, he went to Budapest and then, anxious to pursue rabbinical studies at the Seminary of Breslau. In 1865 he accepted a position as rabbi in Tarnowitz in Upper Silesia. He then returned to Breslau, spending one year at Eastern and Semitic philology. The previous year he had completed his doctorate at the University of Leipzig, his thesis being entitled Ueber die Jdische Angelogie und in Ihrer Abhngigkeit vom Daemonologie in Ihrer Parsismus. The work, published by Deutsche Gesellschaft Morgenlndische in 1866, is the first Jewish labor to be published under the auspices of this society. He received his rabbinical diploma in 1867 and almost immediately established rabbi Stuhlweissenburg , Hungary. Baron Joseph von Etvs , the famous Hungarian poet and novelist, future Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, appointed him Chief Superintendent of every school district, such a post back for the first time a Jew. He is also appointed secretary at the Congress of Jewish leaders to be held in Budapest in 1868.
In 1872 he was elected chief rabbi of Fnfkirchen , where he remained eight years. His reputation as an orator in Hungarian spreads to the point that many famous people of the State and the Church to move away to hear it.
In 1880, Kohut officiating at Grosswardein (Oradea), while in Hungary and Romania today, where he remained until 1884. At Grosswardein he made the acquaintance of Klmn Tisza , Prime Minister of Hungary, who, having heard at a national meeting of elders, is so excited by his eloquence he discussed with him the possibility of appeal to the Hungarian Parliament as a representative of the Jews. However, Kohut was en route to the United States in 1885 and remained there until his death.
New York
In 1885, Kohut was elected rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New York. His arrival in the United States is the signal for rallying the conservative forces of American Judaism, and before long he suffered some violent attacks led by the reformist wing radical, especially Kaufmann Kohler. A series of lectures on Pirkei Avot , which only the first part was printed in book form (New York, 1885), clearly shows the conservative tendencies of Kohut in tradition, and this attitude and the influence that it produces on the public mind is so strong that the leaders of the Reform movement will feel compelled to convene the conference in Pittsburgh , during which the emphasis is on their own views and developed their independence from the traditions historical past.
Kohut associated with Sabato Morais to found the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, which subsequently became, under the leadership of Solomon Schechter , the center of Conservative Judaism , a progressive Jewish movement committed more than Reform Judaism traditions, but in a much more flexible than Orthodox Judaism. Alexander Kohut is part of its advisory board, and performs the functions of professor of Talmudic methodology until his death.
In 1889, during the completion of its Completum Aruch, he received numerous awards, including from various cultural organizations in Europe. In 1891 he was appointed examiner in rabbinical studies at Columbia College. In March 1894, while in the pulpit delivered a stirring eulogy for Lajos Kossuth , he is struck with an attack and after a few weeks of agony, expire on the eve of Shabbat, May 25, 1894.
A volume containing various speeches and tributes are published shortly afterwards by the Congregation Ahavath Chesed in 1894 in New York. His son, GA Kohut, published another in Berlin in 1897, with sections forty-four scholars known in Europe and America and called Semitic Studies in Memory of Rev.. Dr. Alexander Kohut. This book contains recollections of Kohut's life, due to his brother, Dr. Adolph Kohut.
Works
Aruch Completum
The Aruch Completum is a critical edition of the Arukh of Nathan ben Yehiel , and the work of Kohut's life.
In 1864 he began to collect materials. The first compilation of the Dictionary of the Talmud was begun around 1873, and is written entirely in German. Encouraged by the promise of a noble Christian to bear all costs of publishing, Kohut realized, came to the third letter of the alphabet, the work of mammoth proportions to the point that it is impossible to remain confined within the proposed boundaries. He rewrote his notes, proposing to publish the original text of the Aruch with a commentary in German.
Leopold Zunz and Solomon Buber argued with him that the Aruch is a classic country, he returned a third time his work in Hebrew, the task of copying the occupying two more years. The first volume was published in 1878. In the meantime his patron died, and all costs weigh on Kohut now alone except for a grant from the Academy of Sciences in Vienna and another from the Ministry of Education and Culture in Berlin.
The first four volumes will be printed during his years in Hungary, the last four during his stay in America, all covering a period of fourteen (Vienna, 1878-1892); supplement paratt in a publishing house in New York and the total volume fills over 4000 pages in double column.
Seven manuscripts of the Arukh have been used by the author in determining the etymology of words, and countless dubious and corrupt passages in the Talmud as well be corrected and returned. In a special study and very thorough (printed in the supplement), Kohut identifies sources of Nathan ben Yehiel, who had often not been recognized, but also defends accusations of plagiarism, saying it rightly the Aruch has been recognized as one of the monuments of Hebrew literature.
Other
A complete list of his published writings has been compiled by his son, GA Kohut, in Proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Convention of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association (New York, 1894) and Tribute to the Memory of Rev.. Dr. Alexander Kohut, pp. 49-64 (ib. 1894).
Among his literary works published between 1868 and 1872 include its study entitled Etwas ber die Moral und des Buches Tobias Abfassungszeit, originally published in the tenth volume of Judische Zeitung. of Abraham Geiger , several monographs in the ZDMG which were developed her original thesis concerning the Persian influence on Judaism, Kritische Beleuchtung der and Persischen Perevody the Pentateuch-Jakob ben Joseph Tavus (Leipzig, 1871). He was also preparing a critical edition of the Persian text of this version.
He also published in 1881 A Szidk Trtnete has Biblia Befejezsctl Jelenkorig has a manual of introduction to the Bible, adopted in many schools of Hungary, and translated the Bible into Hungarian. Part of the manuscript has been lost, however, and the work was never printed.
References
This article incorporates text from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, article "KOHUT, ALEXANDER" by Isidore Singer , George Alexander Kohut & Cyrus Adler , a publication now in the public domain.
Sources
- (In) This article is partially or entirely from the article in English entitled " Alexander Kohut (see the list of authors )
Loading ...