Sorry that I didn't get to this until today. The source for this particular excerpt in the post itself is relatively unimportant (although I think it's from 1884). It was an oft-repeated story, that as far as I can tell first appears in the book Felix Mendelssohn und seine Zeit (1859) by Heinrich Eduard Jacob. Berthold Aurbach also told the story in a piece called "Wie der Weltweise Moses Mendelssohn seine Frau Gewann", which appeared in 1879, but according to a secondary source also appeared in 1860 in the Illustrierten Deutschen Volkskalender. All told, it seems that the late 1850s are when the story makes its appearance into print, and seems to have become popular in English beginning in the 1880s.
In any case, the way it is presented in the Felix Mendelssohn biography is that the story is a Mendelssohn family legend.
I was hoping to see "Berthold Auerback, historian" instead of "Berthold Auerback, novelist," but you can't always get what you want. -- Phil
ReplyDeleteI'm missing the source and date. Pleeease.
ReplyDeleteNegiah?!!
ReplyDeleteHanoch Teller tells the same story about some chassidish figure being lame. But he copies and "kashers" a lot of his stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe Neu-Sandecer Rov, I believe.
ReplyDeleteSorry that I didn't get to this until today. The source for this particular excerpt in the post itself is relatively unimportant (although I think it's from 1884). It was an oft-repeated story, that as far as I can tell first appears in the book Felix Mendelssohn und seine Zeit (1859) by Heinrich Eduard Jacob. Berthold Aurbach also told the story in a piece called "Wie der Weltweise Moses Mendelssohn seine Frau Gewann", which appeared in 1879, but according to a secondary source also appeared in 1860 in the Illustrierten Deutschen Volkskalender. All told, it seems that the late 1850s are when the story makes its appearance into print, and seems to have become popular in English beginning in the 1880s.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the way it is presented in the Felix Mendelssohn biography is that the story is a Mendelssohn family legend.
Great Maiseh. Seriously! Very hartzig.
ReplyDeleteDF
As told in Khareidi circles, the protagonist in this story is the Divrei Chaim/Sanz. I was even told this story on a date.
ReplyDeleteEtti Ankri's modern, 'frum' version of the legend:
ReplyDeletehttp://bdld.info/2011/02/20/legends-of-the-jews-of-predestination-and-pyramids/
Comment of the year.
ReplyDeleteAnd the kind that speak like that.
ReplyDelete