The Revival of the Literary Genre of Religious Disputation in Hebrew Haskalah: Isaac Satanow's Divrei Rivot

The beginning of Hebrew Enlightenment took place in Germany in the last two decades of the 18th century. From a literary point of view, it is characterized mainly by the Hebrew authors' search for form, contents, and style. In their attempt to modernize Hebrew literature and bring it up to date, they were after certain models to be followed or emulated. Thus one notes the emergence in Hebrew Haskalah (Enlightenment) literature of certain literary genres that were also prevalent in contemporary European liter atures. The epistolary writings were introduced into Hebrew literature, as were the 'Dialogues of the Dead,' to cite a few of the genres. This writer has been studying these literary genres and others for a number of years. As noted in my previous studies, the Hebrew Enlightenment writers not only looked externally for new literary modes and fashions, but also internally. Namely, they were searching the existing corpus of Hebrew literary tradition for models. It is manifested especially in the writings of such a prolific author as Isaac Satanow (1732-1804). A controversial writer then and now, he experimented with many of the traditional styles, such as the proverb, patterned after the biblical books of Proverbs and Psalms. This study deals with Satanow's attempt to emulate the genre of the medieval religious disputations. In 1795 Satanow published an edition of Judah Halevi's classical Hakuzari. A theological treatise on Judaism, it is patterned as a religious disputation conducted by the king of Kuzar as he searched for the true religion. Satanow wrote a commentary to this edition of Hakuzari. Apparently, he was involved in the preparation of this volume as early as 1786. But a year or two (the exact date is not known) before its publication (in 1795), he published the first two volumes entitled Divrei Rivot, which emulate Hakuzari. This study examines the literary aspects of the genre of religious disputation. It delineates the genre's literary characteristics and shows its affinities with the medieval counterpart.