{"product_id":"sound-an-alarm-joseph-perls-dov-taylor-9780878207022","title":"Sound an Alarm! Joseph Perl's Revealer of Secrets and Testing the Righteous","description":"\u003ci\u003eRevealer of Secrets\u003c\/i\u003e is a portrayal-both realistic and satirical-of Eastern European Jewish life in the tumultuous early years of the nineteenth century. It reflects the struggle that raged between the Haskalah and Hasidism as the Jewish people stood on the threshold of modernity. In the battle between reason and faith, the Haskalah admired science and rationalism and recommended broad education to its adherents, while Hasidism revered mystical intuition in its charismatic rebbe-saints and encouraged religious fervor in its followers. Published in Vienna in 1819, Joseph Perl's \u003ci\u003eRevealer of Secrets\u003c\/i\u003e was the most devastating and best-known parody produced by the Haskalah movement. Its milieu is that of Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian Jewry at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Drawing on forms from the eighteenth-century European epistolary novel, the khsidic holy book, khsidic and rabbinic letters, and the Austrian comic tradition, and drawing inspiration from the masterpiece of biblical parody-\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Esther\u003c\/i\u003e-Perl unleashed a broadside that, in the words of one modern critic, \"was to become a classic of Hebrew literature, a masterpiece of invective and the first Hebrew novel.\" Perl's related volume, \u003ci\u003eBohen Tsaddiq\u003c\/i\u003e [\u003ci\u003eTesting the Righteous\u003c\/i\u003e], was published in 1838. \u003ci\u003eTR\u003c\/i\u003e is a sequel to \u003ci\u003eRS\u003c\/i\u003e, consisting of a discussion of readers' reactions to the earlier work, including criticism of the author's use of khsidic sources. Each of the criticisms is, of course, convincingly rebutted, as the entire work is crafted to lend authenticity to \u003ci\u003eRS\u003c\/i\u003e. Ovadya reappears as the narrator in \u003ci\u003eTR\u003c\/i\u003e. Its plot revolves around the search for a completely honest man, in the course of which, representatives of the various elements of Jewish society are reviewed and their defects exposed. The parade of failures includes, not only \u003ci\u003ekhsidim\u003c\/i\u003e, but also rabbis, businessmen, craftsmen, and even \u003ci\u003emaskilim\u003c\/i\u003e. As the search concludes, the honest man turns out to be neither a khsidic tzadek nor even a maskil, but a pious farmer in a Jewish agricultural utopia in the Crimean Peninsula. Perl's vision of utopia thus rejects not only Hasidism but also the idea of a return to Palestine, envisioning instead a life of productive labor in the Diaspora.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Dov Taylor\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0878207023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780878207022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Hebrew Union College Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/31\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 11.79lbs","brand":"Dov Taylor","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44756404371711,"sku":"9780878207022","price":99.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e8544506-75f9-4e19-90cb-f95d48b5aa92.jpg?v=1706592919","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/sound-an-alarm-joseph-perls-dov-taylor-9780878207022","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}