|
The New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division
| |
Collected letters of early Hasidic leaders (Galilee, c. 1800).
Among topics discussed in this correspondence between the eighteenth-century pioneers of Hasidism in the land of Israel is the desirability of ascetic practices--in this case, flagellation (conclusion: it is not for everyone). The Ashkenazic cursive of the main body of the letter is relinquished in favor of Sephardic semi-cursive for the text quoted at the end of the document. More than an arbitrary aesthetic choice, this change of script seems to underscore the authority of the quotation; it is not so much for any Sephardic associations that the scribe makes the change but because the history of Hebrew typography had established Sephardic semi-cursive as "Rabbinic" (or "Rashi") script, a formal, even prestigious, cross-cultural book hand with scholarly connotations.
|
