(A New Ofeq Institute Publication)
Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzatto authored numerous works during his short life. Many of those which appeared in print had a great impact on our people. His Messilat Yesharim, however, has been the most famous and widespread.
It was printed for the first time in 1740 in Amsterdam. The author was then only 33. Luzzatto arrived in Amsterdam in 1735, after leaving his native Italy where he had been the center of a controversy on account of his Kabbalistic writings and teachings.
He was well received by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam and was appointed a teacher in its Yeshiva.
In Amsterdam were also printed his Derekh Tevunot, an introduction to Talmudic argumentation, and LaYesharim Tehilla, a drama.
In 1743 he left for the Land of Israel. A few years later he and his family died in Acre in a plague.
Messilat Yesharim carried approbations by the rabbis of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam and by Rabbi Raphael Meldola, rabbi of Bayonne, France, as well as enthusiastic prefaces by Rabbis Ya’akov Bassan and David Meldola, who proofread the treatises.
Rabbi Ya’akov Bassan, who was rabbi of the Sephardic community of Hamburg before coming to Amsterdam states that he had begun to write a Mussar treatise by the name of Perek HaTeshuva but when Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto showed him his “splended and superb” Messilat Yesharim, he gave up the idea of writing his treatise and instead, asked R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto to permit him to print his book so “that I too might have a part in it.” Luzzatto immediatly granted him the desired permission.
Rabbi Bassan advises every G-d fearing Jew to read Messilat Yesharim at least before the High Holidays to learn the proper manner of acquiring good qualities and to keep away from sinful ways.
Rabbi Basssan also wrote a poem in honor of Luzzatto’s book.
Rabbi David Meldolar, a son of Rabbi Raphael Meldola and a great scholar and author in his own right, writes in the preface that Luzzatto’s book stands out from others of its kind on account of its lucidity and conciseness. He applied to Luzzatto the saying; “From Moshe (Maimonides) until Moshe (Hayyim Luzzatto) there arose none like Moshe (Hayyim Luzzatto).”
Luzzatto states in the beginning of his book that the fear and love of G-d and purity of heart are not inborn, but must be learned ,studied and acquired. For this reason he composed Messilat Yesharim which he based on R. Pinhas ben Yair’s saying (Avoda Zara 20b): Torah leads to watchfulness, watchfulness to zeal, zeal to cleanness, cleanness to restraint, restraint to purity, purity to saintliness, saintliness to meekness, meekness to the fear of sin, fear of sin to holiness…”
Luzzatto guides the student, step by step on the ascent to holiness.
He discusses and explains each of the qualities, enumerated by R. Pinhas ben Yair, what they embrace and what they imply, what are their prerequisites and what are the obstacles standing in the way of their attainment. He instructs the student what to consider and what to teach himself, what he must do and what he must evade and abstain from doing, in order to acquire those precious qualities.
His explanations and directions, written in a beautiful and precise Hebrew, are accompanied by references to experiences in daily life, pertinent psychological observations and proof texts from the Bible, Talmud and Midrash.
Before long, Messilat Yesharim began to conquer the Jewish world. A second edition ofthe book appeared in 1768 in Zolkiev, Since then the volume has been reprinted time and again, going through a very large number of editions.
Hassidim and Mitnagdim differed on various matters, but their leaders were of one mind regarding the personality of R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto.
The Gaon of Vilna is reported to have said that he found no superfluous word in Messilat Yesharim and if its author had been alive, he would have gone to him on foot to learn from him the “wisdom of Mussar.”
Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech, successor of the Ba’aal Shem Tov, spoke of R.M.H. Luzzatto with the greatest of reverence.
When the Mussar movement came into being, Messilat Yesharim became its textbook par excellence.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press May 12, 1995 p. 77
Messilat Yesharim was printed in many countries in large Jewish populations centers as well as in smaller Jewish communities. In 1806 the book was printed in Luneville, France. It was one of 25 Hebrew books printed in that city.
During World War II, Messilat Yesharim was printed in Shanghai, China for the Jews who had found refuge in that ciy. In 1947 it was published in Munich, Germany by Vaad Hatzala for the She’erit HaPleta. Numerous editions have been published in Israel.
There have appeared vocalized editions as well as editions with notes or commentaries by well-known rabbinic personalities such as the late Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna. The book has been translated into various languages.It has been rendered twice into German and English, and seemingly, more times into Yiddish.
One German version, which went through several editions, was prepared by the late R. Joseph Wohlgemuth who was a lecturer at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin.
One of the Yiddish editions was the work of the well known Vilna author and translator Issac Meir Dick.
Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohenKook, ZT”L composed a Kitzur Messilat Yesharim.
In recent years, a number of works by Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto never printed before were published in Israel.
In New York, Rabbi Eluzer Brieger, a very erudite young Torah scholar in 1993 published an annotated edition of Luzzatto’s work on Hebrew grammar (Sefer HaDikduk) based on two manuscripts.
Last summer the Ofeq Institute (Jerusalem-Cleveland) -which in recent years presented us with fine editions of early rabbinic writings – surprised the Torah world with the publication of a different version of Messilat Yesharim, based on a manuscript written in Luzzatto’s own hand, found in the Baron Guenzberg Collection, now in the possession of the Russian State Library in Moscow.
Let me quote a few sentences from the English preface of Rabbi Avraham Shoshana, head of the Ofeq Institute and the editor of excellent editions of works by Rishonim, to the institute’s new volume, which contains both versions of Messilat Yesharim:
“Over three years ago, when the treasures of Judaica in the Soviet Union were still inaccessible, I was invited by the directors of the Russian State Library (formerly, the Lenin State Library) in Moscow, to discuss the feasibility of publishing selected Hebrew manuscripts from the Baron Guenzburg Collection in the library. In the sensitive political atmosphere of the time, the first meetings were understandably difficult. Who could have foreseen that within a short while we would be fortunate to witness the liberation of our spiritual ‘prisoners’ with free access to the written sources in Russia?
“The existence of a manuscript of Messilat Yesharim in Moscow was well known, but none of those who were so anxious to examine it could gain access to the library. One can imagine the excitement and awe we felt when, on our first trip to Moscow, we were privileged to hold this manuscript in our hands. We immediately realized that this is an entirely different Messilat Yesharim from the printed version and that it was written in the author’s own handwriting.”
The two versions of Messilat Yesharim are to a great extent identical in content. It is in the presentation of the material that they differ. The original Messilat Yesharim present Rabbi Luzzatto’s ideas and views in a “running exposition,” divided into 26 chapters. The newly discovered version takes the form of a discussion between a Hasid and a Hoker.
Presenting a dialogue was, indeed , a favorite vehicel of Luzzatto to spread his ideas and beliefs. His Hoker U’Mekubbal, for example, features a discussion between a philosopher and a Kabbalist.
Rabbi Shoshana served as editor of the new book. He entrusted its preparation to Rabbi Joseph Avivi, who edited both versions of Messilat Yesharim and added a long introduction as well as a penetrating epilogue.
Rabbi Shoshana says of Rabbi Avivi that “he bestowed upon this project much labor and talent, with superlative results.”
The praise is well deserved.
Rabbi Avivi, whom I met during my last visit to Israel, is an extraordinary scholar. He is a graduate of the Hesder Yeshiva of Har Etzion.He has been attracted to the study of Kabbala and his publications in this field have been acclaimed by those who are competent to judge.
(Continued next week)