שירה, השכלה ולמדנות

על הערותיו של ר' יוסף רוזין לשירי ר' יהודה הלוי

תקציר

This article examines the marginalia written by famous Talmudic scholar and halachic decisor Rabbi Josef Rozin (the Rogochover) on the poems of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (Rihal). This examination shows how the scholarly characteristics that structure the rest of Rogochover’s Talmudic writings are also found in his comments on medieval poetry, filling a lacuna in the academic study of the various literary genres the Rogochover dealt with in his writings. The article demonstrates how the Rogochover’s interpretation of Rihal’s poems, which utilizes his Talmudic method of study, was bom in response to the critical interpretation of the same poetry written by R. Shmuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), who was associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement and the “Wissenschaft des Judentums” (Science of Judaism). The argument presented in the article is that the interpretive conflict between Rogochover’s Talmudic remarks and Shadal’s critical remarks reflects a broader ideological friction between the Jewish Enlightenment movement and the rabbinic world.