History and memory of self: The autobiography of Rabbi Jacob Emden

Abstract

In the unfolding of the Jewish historical experience, the literary genre of autobiography is a relatively late arrival. While others in the societies within which Jews lived chose to express themselves in this manner, Jews opted for other forms of self-expression. Ancient and medieval Jewry could not boast of the equivalent of an Augustine, an Abelard, a Teresa of Avila, a Dante, or others whose literary oeuvre included a major work of this sort. It was not until early modern times that autobiography began to become a more accepted and popular form of Jewish discourse. 1 In attempting to account for this phenomenon, a contemporary scholar has speculated that it reflects the centrality of the group over the individual in premodern Jewish life. He wrote: "In the classical [Jewish] tradition the individual is so firmly embedded within communal, legal and historical structures that his or her separate inner drama is simple not viewed as a significant source of meaning for the tradition as a whole .... Although the individual is responsible for his actions, the meaning of his life is absorbed in collective structures and collective myths."2 (from Introduction)