Toldot ha-ṭevaʻ

Harald Othmar Lenz, 1799–1870

Translated into Hebrew by Mendele Mokher Sefarim (1835–1917)

Toldot ha-ṭevaʻ (History of Nature)

Leipzig: Bi-defus K.Ṿ. Fallroṭh, ca. 1862–72

The Haskalah’s movement among Jews in Central and Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries benefited greatly from the popular scientific works of the European Enlightenment movement. Translations from European languages into Hebrew became a primary vehicle that helped disseminate modern knowledge, which advocated for rationalism and freedom of thought. This created a sense of cohesion and inclusiveness, the ultimate goals of the Haskalah’s maskilim, or adherents. It was the maskilim who drove the choice of Hebrew as a “new secular language,” as they sought to connect modernization with the search for a new national identity that the entire Jewish community would embrace. 

One of the key proponents of the Hebrew scientific translations was Mendele Mocher Sforim—Hebrew for “Mendele the Book Peddler”, and the pen name of Sholem Yankev Abramovich—a prominent Hebrew and Yiddish writer. Widely recognized as a “grandfather of Yiddish literature,” he began his literary career as a maskilic author and initially wrote exclusively in Hebrew. His fundamental three-volume Toldot ha-teva (History of Nature) was intended as a textbook and is a Hebrew translation of the popular Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte by Dr. Harald Othmar Lenz (1798–1870), a noted German botanist and zoologist. Mendele Mocher Sforim devoted 10 years to writing Toldot ha-teva, published in Leipzig in 1862–72, more time than he ever invested in any of his fictional works. He introduced many new Hebrew names for animals, thus significantly enriching Hebrew scientific terminology.