Bresch, Judah Loeb ben Moses Naphtali
BRESCH, JUDAH LOEB BEN MOSES NAPHTALI
BRESCH, JUDAH LOEB BEN MOSES NAPHTALI (Leyb Brześć ; 15th–16th century), Polish-born translator of a Yiddish Pentateuch (Ḥamishah ḥumshei torah im keẓat perush Rashi), published in Cremona in 1560 and based on the Augsburg and Constance translations of 1544, but radically transforming their slavishly literal style into a slightly more idiomatic Yiddish while still retaining much from the older literal syntactic tradition of biblical translation. He broadened the audience appeal of his version by integrating midrashic material into the text and adding an abbreviated version of Rashi's commentary. The rhymed preface to the translation, printed with vowel pointing, provides detailed information on 16th century Yiddish pronunciation.
bibliography:
W. Staerk and A. Leitzmann, Jüdisch-deutsche Bibelübersetzungen (1923), 114–5, 129–30; E. Schulmann, Sefat Yehudit-Ashkenazit ve-Sifrutah (1913), 9f. add. bibliography: J.C. Frakes, Early Yiddish Texts, 1100–1750 (2004), 305–12; J. Baumgarten, Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature (2005), 105.
[Ignacy Yizhak Schiper /
Jerold c. Frakes (2nd ed.)]