Commentators:R. Yaakov Mecklenburg (HaKetav VeHaKabbalah)/0

R. Yaakov Mecklenburg – Intellectual Profile

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R. Yaakov Mecklenburg

Name	R. Yaakov Mecklenburg ר' יעקב צבי מן גמליאל מקלנבורג
Dates	1785-1865
Location	Gnesen, Koenigsberg
Works	HaKetav VeHaKabbalah
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by	Shadal
Impacted on

Background¹

Life

• Name – 
  • Hebrew name – ר' יעקב צבי בן גמליאל מקלנבורג
• Dates – 1785-1865
• Location – R. Mecklenburg spent much of his youth in Inowroclaw,²and lived in Gnesen, and Koenigsberg.
• Education – 
• Occupation – 
• Family – – His daughter married R. Baruch Gollub.
• Teachers – R. Zecharyah Mendel b. R. David Tevele³
• Contemporaries – R. Samuel David Luzzatto,⁴ R.Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer⁵
• Students – 
• Time period – R. Mecklenburg lived through times of great social upheaval including Jewish emancipation, and the Haskalah and Reform movements. Despite his anti-Reform agenda, R. Mecklenburg operated within a united Jewish community in Koenigsburg, where the Reform community was relatively moderate and respected, to some extent, R. Mecklenburg's authority.⁶
• World outlook – 

Works

• Biblical commentaries – HaKetav VeHaKabbalah on the Torah⁷
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – 
  • Halakhic codes – 
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – 
• Jewish thought – Iyyun Tefilah⁸
• Other works – R. Mecklenburg's extant letters and approbations are important sources for his history and thought.⁹
• Misattributed works – 

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 
• Peshat and derash – 

Methods

• – 

Themes

• – 

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

Supercommentaries

¹ This section incorporates information from E. Breuer,"Between Haskalah and Orthodoxy: The Writings of R. Jacob Zvi Meklenberg," HUCA 66 (1995): 259-87, and the doctoral thesis of M. Dell, "פרשנות אורתודוקסית לתורה בעידן של תמורות – הפולמוס בפירושיהם של רי"צ מקלנבורג ומלבים", Bar Ilan University, 2008 (hereafter: Dell, Parshanut).

² A town referred to by Jews as לעסלא , which R. Mecklenburg calls " עיר מולדתי" (see HaKetav VeHakabbalah Shemot 20:8), although there is some question whether he was born there or in Gnesen. See Breuer, Between Haskalah and Orthodoxy: 262.

³ Who served as a rabbi in Inowroclaw 1805-1809.

⁴ Despite being a younger contemporary, Shadal had significant impact on R. Mecklenburg's work.

⁵ R. Mecklenburg wrote an approbation to R. Kalischer's Derishat Tzion.

⁶ See Dell, Parshanut: 25-26.

⁷ The work was intended to defend Orthodoxy against Reform by showing how the Oral Law - traditional Rabbinic exegesis - is contained within the Torah text (hence the name: Ketav – text, Kabbalah – tradition). R. Mecklenburg published an initial version in 1839, and revised editions in 1852 and 1856. A further revised posthumous edition was published in 1880. See N. Ben Menachem, "Shtei Iggrot R. Yaakov Tzvi Meklenburg", Sinai 65 (1969), pp. 327-332, and E. Brodt, "Using the works of Shadal and R. N. H. Wessely," published on seforim.blogspot.co.il.

⁸ A commentary on the Siddur.

⁹ See Breuer, Between Haskalah, and Dell, Parshanut: 26-28.