Solomon Pappenheim (Hebrew: שלמה בן זליגמן פפנהיים, German: Salomon Pappenheim; 2 February 1740 – 4 or 5 March 1814), also known by the acronymRashap (Hebrew: רש״פ), was a German Maskil, linguist, and poet. He is best known for his three-part study of Hebrewsynonyms entitled Yeri'ot Shelomoh.[3][4]
Biography
Solomon Pappenheim was born into a rabbinic family in Zülz, Silesia, the son of dayan Seligmann Pappenheim.[5] He received a traditional education, and served as rabbi of the Jewish community in Lublinitz before himself becoming dayan at Breslau.[6]
He died in Breslau at the age of 74. On his gravestone was inscribed in Hebrew Ein zeh kever ach aron kodesh ('This is not a grave but a Holy Ark').[7]
Pappenheim composed a satire against Jonathan Eybeschutz entitled Elonei memre ve-kiryat arba (1761) amid the dispute between the latter and Jacob Emden.[5] During the controversy on the subject of early burial[8] he wrote several works in German favoring the practise among Jews: Die frühe Beerdigung bei den Juden (1795), Die Nothwendigkeit der frühen Beerdigung (1797), and Deduction Seiner Apologie für die frühe Beerdigung (1798).[9] Against David Friedländer's views he wrote Freymüthige Erklärung über die erst jüngst rege gewordene Kritik des Gottesdienstes der Juden und deren Erziehung der Jugend (1813),[10] in which he holds up to his nation various abuses within and without the Synagogue, declaring the need for "a convention of sensible rabbis for the purpose of remedying these abuses."[11]
Pappenheim is especially known for his book on Hebrew synonyms and the philosophy of space and time, which appeared in three parts under the title Yeri'ot Shelomoh.[12] The first and third were published in Dyhernfurth in 1784 and 1811, respectively, while the second was published posthumously in Rödelheim in 1831.[11] A fourth part remained unprinted.[13]
After losing his wife and three children in a short time, he wrote his Aggadat arba kosot, an imitation of Edward Young's Night-Thoughts in poetic prose (Berlin, 1790; Zolkiev, 1805; Vienna, 1809; with additions by M. Lemans, Amsterdam, 1817).[14][15] The melancholic reflection on death and immortality survived many editions, and was translated into German by I. Wilheimer.[10] It would go on to influence the poetry of Avraham Dov Ber and Micah Joseph Lebensohn.[16]
Pappenheim's philosophical treatises include Beiträge zur Berichtigung der Beweise vom Dasein Gottes aus der Reinen Vernunft (1794) and Abermaliger Versuch über den Ontologischen Beweis vom Dasein Gottes (1800).[12] Of his Hebrew lexiconḤeshek Shelomoh only one number, on the particles, appeared (1802).[17]Ge'ullat Mitzrayim; Über die Erlösung aus Aegypten als Grundstein des Gesetzes was printed after his death by Hirsch Sachs (1815).[9]
Freymüthige Erklärung über die erst jüngst rege gewordene Kritik des Gottesdienstes der Juden und deren Erziehung der Jugend (in German). Breslau. 1813.
^ abZinberg, Israel (1976). The Berlin Haskalah. A History of Jewish Literature. Translated by Martin, Bernard. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press. pp. 179–182. ISBN9780870684777.
^ abWolfson, Harry Austryn (1927). "Solomon Pappenheim on Time and Space and His Relation to Locke and Kant". Israel Abraham's Memorial Volume. New York: Press of the Jewish Institute of Religion. pp. 426–440.
