Jacob Emden
Jacob (Ya‘akov) Emden, also known as Ya‘avets (Ya‘akov ben Tsevi), was a renowned rabbinic scholar who lived in Altona, then in Denmark, near Hamburg, for most of his life, though he spent some time in Amsterdam, Moravia, and Emden. Except during his time in Emden, he held no official rabbinic post. Emden was a prolific writer; many of his works, including Sefer hitabkut (1762–1767), were related to his controversies. He owned a small printing press in Altona. A temperamental and controversial figure, he leveled accusations against many rabbinic figures, that they were secret believers in Shabetai Tsevi, including against Jonathan Eybeschütz, whom he accused of creating Sabbatian amulets.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Megilat sefer (The Scroll of the Book)
Primary Source
Mor u-ketsiyah (Myrrh and Cassia)
Primary Source
Sefer hitavkut (Book of Struggle)
Related Guide
Life Writing: Biography, Autobiography, and Ego Documents, 1750–1880
The famous and the obscure, women and men, in epitaphs and private letters, ethical wills, cookbooks, and religious reflections, all reflect aspects of Jewish life in a period of great transition.
Related Guide
Rabbinic Scholarship, 1750–1880
Despite the challenges to the status of rabbinic scholarship beginning in the early modern period, it flourished with figures of coruscating brilliance in Central and Eastern Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.