Rabín Jom Tov Lipmann Heller (1578–1654)

The work of a professor of Jewish thought at Gratz College (in Pennsylvania), it examines the life and work of Rabbi Heller, a distinguished Talmudic scholar known for his interest in Kabbalah, religious philosophy, as well as Hebrew grammar, mathematics, astronomy, and the natural sciences. Heller served as chief rabbi in Vienna, Prague and Cracow; his Prague tenure was interrupted by a tragic event when the rabbi was arrested in July 1629 and imprisoned in Vienna for several months on charges of insulting the Christian religion. Against the backdrop of the turbulent events of Europe at the time and the remarkable fate of Rabbi Heller, Joseph Davis portrays the world of seventeenth-century rabbinic authorities and contemporary rabbinic thought, including its views on education and different religions. He also focuses on the relationship between the Jewish community and the secular authorities and on social relations within Jewish communities. The Czech edition expands the original edition by adding the first ever complete translation of Rabbi Heller's own biography, Megilat Ejva, and several additional poems by Yom Tov Heller and Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Lenz. There are also studies on Autobiography in Jewish Literature in the 16th to 18th Centuries and Historical Events in Liturgical Poetry.

Czech edition