{"id":963,"date":"2016-12-20T18:32:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T22:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.papaworx.com\/Book\/?page_id=963"},"modified":"2016-12-20T18:32:31","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T22:32:31","slug":"963-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/?page_id=963","title":{"rendered":"1-3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Besides the F\u00fcrstenberg archives, Rosenthal relied in his St\u00fchlingen chapters12<\/a><\/span><\/span> heavily and uncritically on Leopold L\u00f6wenstein\u2019s ‘Nathanael Weil, Ober\u00adlan\u00addes\u00adrab\u00adbiner<\/em> [chief rabbi of the Baden province] in Karlsruhe und seine Familie<\/em>.’ L\u00f6\u00adwen\u00adstein, in turn, had based his article largely on papers from the estate of that rabbi Nathanael (Nesanel) Weil, as edited by his son Rabbi Tiah Weil. According to these accounts, \u201cNathanael was the grandson of the learned and wealthy Maharam Weil of St\u00fchlingen, the builder of the famous St\u00fchlingen synagogue, who used wine instead of water in mixing the mortar for its construction, and who traced his own ancestry back to Morenu ha-Rav Meir of Rothenburg.”<\/span>13<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

L\u00f6wenstein has reconstructed his \u201chagiography\u201d of Maharam Weil largely from the yichus<\/em> letters (pedigree documents) of both Rabbi Nathanael and his son Tiah Weil. The custom of compiling pedigrees has a long tradition in rabbinic families, reaching back to biblical times.14<\/a><\/span><\/span> It says in the Talmud:<\/span><\/p>\n

R. Parnak said in R. Johanan\u2019s name: He who is himself a scholar, and his son is a scholar, and his son too, the Torah will nevermore cease from his seed.”15<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Consequently, in traditional Jewish society, the pedigree is a crucial factor in judging a man\u2019s piety and learning. It could affect a rabbi\u2019s career,16<\/a><\/span><\/span> one\u2019s chances at a desirable marriage, and even the size of the dowry.17<\/a><\/span><\/span> It is essential to count among one\u2019s ancestors many famous scholars, as well as some martyrs steadfastly clinging to their faith. According to their biographies, both Nathanael and Tiah had great difficulties in finding stable positions as community rabbis and struggled with abject poverty. Nathanael largely depended on his wife\u2019s income as a shopkeeper. One can well appreciate the temptation to fortify their pedigrees. <\/span><\/p>\n

In their defence, as this investigation will reveal, there were at least five distinct Marum Weils over the 140-year history of St\u00fchlingen\u2019s Jews, several both rich and influential. It is quite possible that the fabled rabbi Marum Weil of St\u00fchlingen resulted from a confluence of separate myths.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosenthal was well aware of this problem. In a letter to Florence Guggenheim, dated August 4, 1957, he wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

With your conclusions concerning the careless manner in which many genealogists construct their pedigree, I am in full agreement. From my own experience in this regard, I could write a long and sorry book. In few other human endeavours one finds as much falsifications as in genealogy. True, some phantasy is useful even in family research. But one can consider one\u2019s hypotheses only then as factual, when they are also supported by official documents. This rule also applies to family traditions passed on from generation to generation.18<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

It is then somewhat surprising that Rosenthal should accept the claims in Nathanael Weil\u2019s biography in such an axiomatic manner. In retrospect, it is almost impossible to separate fact from fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

12<\/a><\/span>Weil, Korban Nesanel.<\/p>\n

13<\/a><\/span>L\u00f6wenstein p. 4. Morenu ha-Rav Meir of Rothenburg<\/em> refers to Rabbi Maharam of Rothenburg (1215\u201393), one of the greatest medieval Talmud scholars in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

14<\/a><\/span>Cf. Exod. 6:14.<\/p>\n

15<\/a><\/span>BT, Bava Metzia 85a 5.<\/p>\n

16<\/a><\/span>Klausner, \u201cEuropean Rabbis”, p. 14.<\/p>\n

17<\/a><\/span>Salsitz and Kaish, \u201cThree Homelands\u201d 117.<\/p>\n

18<\/a><\/span>Rosenthal, Berthold Rosenthal Collection, reel 13, frame 651 [in German]. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besides the F\u00fcrstenberg archives, Rosenthal relied in his St\u00fchlingen chapters12 heavily and uncritically on Leopold L\u00f6wenstein\u2019s ‘Nathanael Weil, Ober\u00adlan\u00addes\u00adrab\u00adbiner [chief rabbi of the Baden province] in Karlsruhe und seine Familie.’ L\u00f6\u00adwen\u00adstein, in turn, had based his article largely on papers from the estate of that rabbi Nathanael (Nesanel) Weil, as edited by his son Rabbi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"new_page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/963\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuehlingen.online\/Book\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}