Yiddish Translations of Ahavat Zion by Abraham Mapu

  Abraham Mapu was a Russian Hebrew novelist; born near Kovno in 1808 and died at Königsberg in 1867. Mapu introduced the novel into Hebrew literature. His early education in Bible and Talmud was received at the ḥeder. At the age of twelve, he continued the study of the Talmud in private, and was so successful that he soon acquired the name of "'Illui". Moved thereto by his own poetical and impulsive disposition and influenced by his father, Jekuthiel, himself a mystic and cabalist, Mapu took up, at the age of fifteen, the study of Kabbalah. Mapu later studied Talmud and Kabbalah with Elijah Kalisher (Ragoler), rabbi at Slobodka (Mapu's birthplace). In Kalisher's house he found a copy of the Psalms with a Latin translation, and this awakened within him a desire to study Latin, which he did from that translation. A better opportunity to study Latin presented itself when he formed the acquaintance of a Catholic priest while teaching in a country school; and he made such good progress in the language that he wrote a book in Latin. Ma'oz Ẓur. From this time dates Mapu's devotion to secular studies, particularly to languages and literatures, which he pursued henceforth assiduously. In the forties he moved with his family to Rossieny, government of Kovno; there he became acquainted with the scholar Senior Sachs, who greatly heightened his love for ancient Hebrew history and literature and for the beauties of Biblical diction, of which Mapu made later such good use in his romances. A few years later he became teacher in the house of Apatov Parnes at Vilnius, and then was appointed teacher of Jewish religion and German at the gymnasium of Kovno.