Levita, Elia

Born in the vicinity of Neustadt and Nuremberg , in the Levite family; the youngest of nine brothers. In adolescence, along with his fellow tribesmen, he was expelled and moved to Northern Italy. He taught Jewish grammar in Padua , where he lived since 1504, but in 1509, when the city ​​was taken by the enemy army, Levita moved to Rome, where he turned for help to the learned cardinal , general of the Augustinian order . He spent 13 years in the house of the cardinal, teaching the latter the Hebrew language and learning Greek from him. At this time, Leviticus, at the request of the cardinal, wrote a grammatical composition “Habachur” ( Hebrew grammar “םפד הבחוד” in four parts; first printed in Rome, 1518). In the same year, Levita compiled the grammar tables of the Hebrew language הפעלים והבניניםא אלוח בדקדוק, as well as a book about incorrect words in the Bible “םפד ההדבבה”; in 1520 he published an essay on various grammatical issues under the title "פדקי אליהו", in four parts. ^[2]

In 1527, the imperial troops took Rome , and Leviticus, having lost part of his manuscripts, went to Venice , where the typographer Daniel Bomberg offered him the place of the Jewish proofreader. His apprentice in Venice, French envoy , later a bishop and character in the mystical painting Ambassadors (1533), encouraged Levita to publish a large biblical concordance , םפד היבדינית, which he worked on for about twenty years (stored in Paris national library ; in 1875, Goldberg published (ב״ג) the beginning of this work before the word אגמי, and the introduction to it was published by Frensdorf in Monatsschrift, XII, 96–118). Levite was offered a chair at the University of Paris , but he refused to settle where his co-religionists were forbidden; he also refused to occupy the chair in other Christian colleges ^[2] . According to another article by the EEBE , Levite’s invitation to become a professor of the Jewish language at the College de France came from Francis I ^[3] .

Levita published the Masoretic work Massoret ha-Massoret (מםודת המםידת; Venice, 1538; a critical history of the biblical text) in three parts. In the third introduction to this work, Leviticus gives a lot of evidence in favor of the opinion that punctuation to the Bible was composed by masorets in the 5th century . This made a strong impression among Orthodox Jews, who believed in the antiquity of punctuation, who were already unhappy with Levita for teaching the Christians the Hebrew language, since the latter seemed to learn this language just to find in Jewish texts and mainly in Kabbalah arguments against Judaism . Levita is justified in the introduction by the fact that he teaches them only the rules of the language, and not Kabbalah and other things, and, in addition, Christian Hebraists always protect Jews against fanatical attacks. For three centuries this work was extremely popular; it was used by Buxtorf , Walton , de Rossi and others. In 1539, it was reprinted in Basel with a Latin translation of the three introductions of S. Munster . In 1772, a German translation of the work of Christian Gottlieb Mayer appeared (Gottlieb Mayer), and in 1867 - English ^[4] - K. D. Ginzburg ^[2] . In this work, Leviticus also touched on the issue ο abbreviations , which in medieval writing formed a huge number. The corresponding chapter was then reprinted separately, under the title Schaar Schiber Luchot (שּער שנרי לוחות) ^[5] .

In 1538, Levita published Tub taam (םפד טוד טעם), about accents in the Hebrew language. By this time, the Bomberg printing house had ceased to exist, and Leviticus, having received the invitation of the Christian scholar Paul Fagius to become the manager of his Jewish printing house, went to Isny (1540). His works appeared there ^[2] :

• תשדי - a dictionary containing 712 words used in the Talmud and Midrashim , with translations into Latin and German (Isni, 1541);
• “םפד ם תודגמן” - explanation of the Aramaic words of Targum (Isni, 1541);
• "שמותדבדים" - an alphabetical list of technical Heb. words (Isni, 1542);
• the Hebrew-German translation of the Pentateuch, the Five Scrolls and Gaftaroth (Konstanz, 1544);
• new revised edition of םפד הבתוד.

Returning to Venice, Levita, despite his great old age, was engaged in the publication of various works, among them - "מבלול" by David Kimchi with his own additions "נםוקים" ^[2] .

While still a teacher of the Jewish language, at the request of his students, he composed a commentary on the Mahalach Schebile ha-Daat by Moses Kimchi (מהלן שבילי הדעת; the first short methodical guide to Jewish grammar; XII century), but the copyist Benjamin Colbo published it in Pesaro under in his own name, adding to it extracts from other works. Although this publication had many inaccuracies, it was very popular among Jews and Christians; there are several editions of this work and the Latin translation of Sebastian Münster (Basel, 1531, 1536). In 1546, Leviticus released his work in Venice as amended. ^[2]

He suggested the origin of the name Ashkenaz (the name of Germany in medieval rabbinical literature) from the Talmudic word "גרמ (" (German) - beautiful ^[6] .

He died in Venice in 1549.

Grammar works of the Levites ^[1] :

• "Habachur" (Rome, 1518) - the grammar of the Hebrew language; was translated into Latin by Sebastian Münster (Elia Levita, Grammatica hebraica absolutissima, 1525), was especially popular;
• “Sefer Haharkaba, liber compositionis, hebraice”;
• “Tub taam” (1538) - about stresses in the Hebrew language;
• “Massoret ha-Massoret” (1538) - an explanation of vocalizations and diacretic marks of the Masoretic text of the Tiberias editorial office.

Lexicographic works of Levites:

• Sefer Tisbi and Meturgemen (1541). These works, partially translated into Latin by the students of Levita, Münster and P. Fagius , were greatly appreciated by scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. ^[one]

Biography Grammar of Elia Levita (Leipzig, 1856) - the first literary work of Solomon Buber .

• Kampen, Johann van - author of Jewish grammar, compiled by the essay of Elia Levita (Krakow, 1534; Paris, 1539, 1543)
• Bahrah, Yakov ben-Moses - the author of The History of the Assyrian Letter (Warsaw, 1854), which objected to the theory of Elijah Levita about the emergence of vowels and accents in the post-Talmudic time.