WESSELY, HARTWIG, 0 r Naphtali Her Wessel 6r,11 rrn abbreviated171"1), one of the most distinguished Hebraists of the eighteenth century. He was born at Amsterdam in 1725, and derived his name from the fact that his ancestors came from Wesel or \Vessel. His parents went to live at Copenhagen when he was quite a youth, and being pious Jews, they sent him to a Talmudic school at the age of six. So great were his natural endow ments that he could translate sundry portions of the Talmud without any aid at the age of nine„ and had the most perfect mastery of the Hebrew ' lang,uage at the age of seventeen (1742). Having also acquired the knowledge of other languages, he devoted himself at this early period to the study of the Scriptures, and made a Hebrew translation of the Book of Wisdom, accompanying it by a most elaborate commentary entitled The Spirit of Grace (in nri). This maiden production of Wes sely, though not published till 1777, shows the extraordinary grasp which he had of almost all departments of literature and science. It 5s a pattern of Hebrew composition, resembles the classical language of the O. T., and abounds with valuable criticism on the sacred language, and especially on its synonyms. .VVessely afterwards went to Amsterdam, virhere, though engaged in business, he devoted all his spare time to the elucidation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the re formation of his co-religionists. As a result of his labours, he published two volumes of his gigantic work on the synonyms of the Hebrew lang-uage, called Lebanon 0)129), under the special title of A Closed Garden 611P p), in allusion to Song of Songs iv. 12, Amsterdam 1765-6. The first volume (ntnnri ll'Orl) consists of 10 sections (a+nri), subdivided into 120 chapters, and contains a most elaborate philological and psychological disquisi tion on the signification and development of the root nzrt, as well as a treatise on a portion of the Mosaic law. It is preceded by an extensive intro duction, entitled The Entrance into the Garden (pi tmn), in which the plan of the work is set ' forth, and specimens of Hebrew synonyms are given. The second volume (4)vi Non) consists of 13 sections (104-nri), subdivided into 18o chap ters 0-ru61), and gives in a most learned manner a philosophico-traditional explanation of all the passages of the O. T. in which either the word
DZil or its derivatives occur. It is likewise pre ceded by an elaborate introduction (pi ,...rizn), wherein those words are explained which constitute mixed forms. The work is invaluable for its definitions of Hebrew words, especially the techni cal expressions, as well as for its tracing the con nection between the Mosaic law and the traditional explanations thereof. A second edition of it was published in Vienna 1829, and a third in Warsaw 1838. Wessely returned to Copenhagen in 1769, and went to Berlin in 1774, where he became most intimate with Mendelssohn, the great philosopher, and reformer of modern Judaism [MENDELSSOHN]. Here he continued, amid circumstances of extreme penury, to issue his valuable contributions to He brew literature, and published a commentary on the important tractate of the Mishna called The Sayings of the Fathers (rnze, 4pin), under the title The Wine of Lebanon 0)19 1"), Berlin 1775, which not only sets forth the opinions and doc trines prevalent in the time of Christ, but contains valuable remarks on the synonyms of the Hebrew language. Here too he also published 0777) his maiden work on the Wisdom of Solomon, and a commentary on Leviticus (Kip+1 inc6 ilt.c), 1782, which forms part of the commentary to Mendels sohn's German translation of the Pentateuch [MENDELSSOHN]. WeSSely returned to Hamburg in 1804, where he died March 23, 1805. The chief work of Wessely, however, on the Hebrew synonyms, entitled A el-I/leo-philosophical Hebrew Lexicon, has not as yet been published. Euchel printed an extract of it in the Hebrew Essays and Reviews, called 9DtsZnil, The Gleaner, vol. iii. appendix i. p. 3-38, reprinted in the Bikkure Ha iii. pp. 7o-76. A German translation of an extract from the Hebrew original by Euchel was published in the same Essays ezna' Reviews, vol. ii. pp. 69-76, 85-87 ; comp. Meisel, Leben und Wirken 1Vessely's, Breslau 1841 ; Jost, Geschichte des Yu denthunes, iii. 307, ff., Leipzig 1859 ; Geiger, in Zeitschrift der deutsche,: morgenlandischen Gesell schaft, vol. xvii. 321, ff., Leipzig 1863 Ffirst, Bibliotheca Yudaica, 507-309.—C. D. G.