Jacob Huli’s Me‘am lo‘ez (From a People of Foreign Tongue)

Jacob Huli

1730

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Printed page of Hebrew text framed by arch with columns of garlands and a border of Hebrew text. — The masterpiece of eighteenth-century Ladino literature is the encyclopedic commentary on the Bible, *Me‘am lo‘ez* (*From a People of Foreign Tongue*), by Jacob Huli, the first volume of which was published in Istanbul in 1730. Huli noted in his introduction that he embarked on this project to counter the decline in religiosity and knowledge of the Jewish sources, as well as the Spanish public’s growing distance from Ladino and Hebrew. After Huli’s death in 1732, the project was continued by Isaac Magriso, who completed the commentary on Exodus, published in Istanbul in 1746. Commentaries on Leviticus (1753) and Numbers (1764) followed. This project, which continued until the end of the nineteenth century, became a cornerstone of Ladino culture and of Sephardic Judaism in the East, appealing to men and women.

Credits

Isaac ben Moses Magriso and Jacob Culi, from Sefer Me–ʻam loʻez (Istanbul: Bi–defus Yonah b. Yaʻaḳov, 1730), title page.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Descended from prominent rabbinic families, Jacob Huli was born in Jerusalem or Safed, and later traveled to Constantinople to publish his grandfather’s writings. There he completed his studies, becoming a rabbinic judge, teacher, and editor. Perceiving a dearth of religious knowledge and practice in the wake of Sabbateanism, Huli resolved to compose a text accessible to all levels of Jewish society, drawing on numerous sources and tackling a wide range of topics in Jewish life. The result is one of the most important Ladino works, the biblical commentary Me-‘am lo‘ez (From a People of Foreign Tongue). He published the first volume, his commentary on Genesis, in 1730. By the time of his death, he had completed the commentary on Exodus, up to chapter 27. Other scholars wrote commentaries on further biblical books, following his example. Me-‘am lo‘ez became extremely popular; numerous editions were published, and Huli is considered one of the fathers of Ladino literature. He also composed a halakhic work, Simanim li-oraita (Signs of the Bible), which was never published.