Jekuthiel Blitz

Rabbi Jekuthiel ben Isaac Blitz (b.Wittmund, Germany, fl.1670s) was a rabbi who made the first whole translation of the Hebrew Bible into Yiddish.[1]

Blitz was a corrector of the press in the Hebrew printing-office of Uri Phoebus (Faibush) Halevi in Amsterdam and was commissioned by him to make a translation which finished printing in late 1678.

The translation which was the first of its kind of the entire Old Testament has three introductions; one in Hebrew and one in German written by Blitz and the third in Judæo-German by the printer together with a letter-patent of the king of Poland Johann III Sobieski and approbations by various rabbis. Blitz also translated into Judæo-German Levi ben Gerson's "To'aliyyot" on Joshua, Judges, and Samuel, published together with the preceding work.[2]

Since Blitz was not an accomplished Hebraist he relied on other translations into Germanic languages, Luther's German translation and the Dutch Statenvertaling.[3][4]

References

  1. ↑ Rosenthaliana: Two Yiddish Bibles printed in Amsterdam
  2. ↑ "BLITZ, JEKUTHIEL BEN ISAAC - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
  3. ↑ "Rosenthaliana: Two Yiddish Bibles printed in Amsterdam". cf.uba.uva.nl. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
  4. ↑ Introduction to Old Yiddish literature p 124 Jean Baumgarten, Jerold C. Frakes - 2005 "Jekuthiel Blitz went so far as to praise the more accessible Christian translations, in comparison to which the Yiddish translations were inarticulate."
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