The Book of Leviticus, Translated and Explained

Preface

The present commentary on Leviticus is based on my lectures on Leviticus given at the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin in 1873/4 and 1876/7. This fact explains the approach and the economy of my book whose length requires that it be divided into two volumes. A benevolent reader will notice that despite its age my commentary is not outdated. Having yielded to the entreaty of students and friends that I publish my lectures on the Pentateuch, I made the necessary additions and changes in light of the latest publications. I readily admit that due to the tenets of my faith I could not arrive at the result that the Pentateuch was written by someone other than Moses or even after Moses. To dispel all doubts regarding this point, I present the principles that guide my interpretation of scripture clearly and precisely in the “general introduction.” In my effort to furnish a scientific base for these “dogmatic preconditions,” I deliberately proposed only such reasoning as could be accepted also from other points of view.

I would like to express how I wish my Jewish readers would assess my reasoning on this issue as well as the explanations I am presenting on prominent features of the Pentateuch in the words of Geviha ben Pesisa (b. Sanhedrin 91a): “If they triumph over me, say: ‘You have triumphed over an ordinary person among us.’ And if I triumph over them, say to them: ‘The Torah of Moses triumphed over you.’” If from time to time my justifications appear weak and unsatisfactory, it should be ascribed to my own deficiencies; but where my reasoning is found to be on point and successful, it is the divinely revealed truth of the “Torah of Moses” that speaks for itself and emerges victorious. But even in the first case, it is to be hoped that my commentary will at least stimulate others, who may be more richly endowed with sharp intellectual faculties, to engage in research and achieve better results.

The printing of the second volume will begin, God willing, immediately. But because of my manifold professional commitments, I cannot say at all when my lectures about the other books of the Pentateuch might appear. However, I decided to dedicate all my free time predominantly to this labor and hope that upon completion of the commentary on Leviticus, I am able, with God’s help, to send the commentary on another book of the Pentateuch (probably on Deuteronomy) to the printer.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the men who garnered merit by raising the funds for the printing of this commentary. First of all, I want to mention my dear colleague Prof. Dr. A. Berliner, who by reading the proofs contributed to the correctness of this work, and Abraham Zamory who already emerged as a reliable patron of Jewish scholarship when he funded the printing of four editions of Ha-ketav ve-ha-kabalah.¹ I am also deeply grateful to R. Markus Hirsch of Hamburg and the Jewish Literary Association of Frankfurt.

Berlin, October 1904