Isaac Bernays - Influence

Influence

Bernays possessed wide philosophical views, a rare knowledge of the Bible, Midrash, and Talmud, and an admirable flow of language: he was indeed a born orator. He was the first Orthodox German rabbi who introduced the German sermon into the service, and who tried to interpret the old Jewish feeling in modern form and to preserve the ancestral creed even in cultured circles. His antagonists were therefore to be found in the ranks of the ascetic fanatics of the "klaus" as well as among the adherents of the "Temple," a reform synagogue founded in 1817, against whose prayer-book Bernays had pronounced an anathema. By lectures on the Psalms, on Judah ha-Levi's "Cuzari," etc., he tried to strengthen and to deepen the religious life of the community, the institutions of which he supervised very carefully. His influence was felt in the Hamburg community, where Jewish traditions and the study of Jewish literature are often found united with modern education.

Bernays left no literary works. A small anonymous essay, "Der Bibelsche Orient"—of great linguistic learning and original and wide historical views on Judaism—was supposed to have been written by him in early years; but he denied the authorship, and never in later life showed any conformity with the views of the little book.