Initially, I will reveal Rapoport’s close involvement in Flesch’s sweeping project of translating Philo’s writings into Hebrew. I will then discuss the links between Rapoport and Krochmal as they pertain to the examination of Philo’s philosophy. Like Krochmal, Rapoport, known as one of the “pioneers of the new historiography,” wished to exploit Philo’s ancient thought for the sake of developing his own unique historiographical account of Judaism. Finally, I will focus on Rapaport’s own assertions relating to the Jewish Alexandrian, drawing mainly on his Realenzyklopädie ‘Erekh Milin (1852). Through these different thematic junctures, I will put forward the argument that Rapoport played a pivotal role in the propagation of Philo’s thought among Jewish intellectuals. I will aim to show that Rapoport advanced within maskilic circles a perception of the Alexandrian exegete as a genuine Jewish thinker whose philosophical innovation and historical significance could be compared with any of the achievements of other past Jewish intellectuals. Consequently, I wish to argue that Rapoport—one of “the great authorities of Jewish scholarship” in the Haskala—served as the missing link between Krochmal and Flesch, mediating between them various ideas concerning Philo’s intimate correlation with Jewish tradition
Leopold Löw (1811–1875), chief rabbi of Szeged and editor of Ben-Chananja: Monatsschrift für jüdische Theologie, dedicated fifteen successive paragraphs of chapter 11¹ of the first volume of his Ha-Mafteaḥ: Praktische Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift und Geschichte der Schriftauslegung, ein Lehrbuch für die reifere Jugend, ein Handbuch für Gebildete (1855) to Philo of Alexandria, designated as “Philo der Jüngere” (§§247–261).² Despite Löw’s critical assessment of Philo’s method of allegorical exegesis as unscientific,³ his overall positive portrayal of his “philosophical Midrashim” and their prevalent traditional Jewish content is rather striking.⁴ He concludes his presentation of Philo’s thought with the...