Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Joseph Wolff's missionary journal; excerpts concerning his contact with a disciple of the Vilna Gaon

One of the famous 19th century Jewish-born missionaries was Joseph Wolff, born in Bavaria in 1795, who converted to Catholicism (1812). He studied in Rome, but was eventually expelled for heresy. An English banker based in Rome named Henry Drummond brought him to England. There he became a Protestant and was signed up as a missionary for the London Society for the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews. When the Society did not send him on a mission, Drummond himself financed a trip to the Middle East for him, including to (what I will call) Israel. This he did in 1821-22.

First, a digression. The following was published in The London Magazine in 1827:

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us


Wolff then published an account of his travels in the form of journal entries, and very interesting they are. Included in his account is a meeting with one of the foremost students of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklov (1750-1827), who had emigrated in 1808 with a group, was then the leader of the Ashkenazim in Israel.

Here is a letter written by him:

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us


Wolff's complete account deserves to be reprinted, so here it is:

March 26 I had already at Malta Alexandria and Cairo heard of the name of rabbi Mendal Ben Baruch the chief rabbi of the Polish Jews residing at Jerusalem who is generally acknowledged even by the Spanish Jews as the greatest divine of this present age He is considered the greatest Baal Kabbala and Hasid Hab bi Solomon his disciple told me of him when at Cairo that rabbi Mendel can preach upon every word of the Torah more than three hours and every one present Seems struck with astonishment Rabbi Mendel was the disciple of the celebrated I lia Wilna Abraham the son of David entered my room and told me that
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
was Israel cast to the ground nnW he was banished out of the land of the living from the land of Canaan for the transgression of my people I interrupted him and asked Who was banished for my people the people of God Rabbi Mendel became rather angry as soon as I observed it I broke off Mendel continued He made his with the wicked for Israel is buried

Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available
Text not available

I know that this is unusually long, but it's well worth reading. If you want to read the parts I left out, plus much more, do see the Missionary Journal and Memoir of the Rev. Joseph Wolf, Missionary to the Jews.

Here is an image of him preaching in the Holy Land:

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
'