Tzadikim

Rabbi Isaac Samuel Reggio (YaShaR) (Hebrew: יש"ר, יצחק שמואל רג'יו) (August 15, 1784 – August 29, 1855) was an Austro-Italian scholar and rabbi. He was born and died in Gorizia. Reggio studied Hebrew and rabbinics under his father, Abraham Vita, later rabbi of Gorizia, acquiring at the same time in the gymnasium a knowledge of secular science and languages. Reggio's father, one of the liberal rabbis who supported Hartwig Wessely, paid special attention to the religious instruction of his son, who displayed unusual aptitude in Hebrew, and at the age of fourteen wrote a metrical dirge on the death of Moses Ḥefeẓ, rabbi of Gorizia

Skills

Besides Italian, his mother tongue, Reggio knew French, German, and Latin, and he studied several Semitic languages in addition to Hebrew. He possessed a phenomenally clear, if not profound, intellect, and as mathematics offered the widest field for his analytical talent, it was at first his favorite study. In 1802 he published in the Neuwieder Zeitung the solution of a difficult mathematical problem, which gave him a reputation as a mathematician (comp. Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1837, p. 228). He discovered also a new demonstration of the Pythagorean theorem, which was praised by Cauchy, the well-known French mathematician.

The Rabbinic Seminary of Padua

A year later (1803) Reggio went to Trieste, where for three years he was a tutor in the house of a wealthy family. There he made a friend of Mordecai Isaac de Cologna, at whose death (1824) Reggio wrote a funeral oration in Italian. He returned to Gorizia in 1807, where one year later he married the daughter of a wealthy man and settled down to a life of independent study. When the province of Illyria (1810) became a French dependency, Reggio was appointed by the French governor professor of belles-lettres, geography, and history, and chancellor of the lycée of Gorizia. But three years later Illyria became again an Austrian province, and the Austrian anti-Jewish laws compelled Reggio to resign.

Taking Moses Mendelssohn and Hartwig Wessely as guides, he next made his name celebrated in connection with religious philosophy, and became indeed to the Italian Jews what Mendelssohn was to his German co-religionists. In 1822 an imperial decree having been issued that no one might be appointed rabbi who had not graduated in philosophy, Reggio published at Venice an appeal, in Italian, for the establishment of a rabbinical seminary, arguing that just as the emperor did not desire rabbis devoid of philosophical training, neither did the Jews desire rabbis who had had no rabbinical education. This appeal resulted in the establishment of a rabbinical college at Padua, for which Reggio drew up the statutes and the educational program.

Following the example of Mendelssohn, Reggio endeavored to extend the knowledge of Hebrew among the Jewish masses by translating the Bible into Italian language and writing a commentary thereon. His simple but clear and attractive style made a deep impression not only on the Italian but even on the German Jews. Although he believed that in the main the text of the Bible has been well guarded against corruption, yet he admitted that involuntary scribal errors had slipped in and that it would be no sin to correct them (Iggerot Yashar, Letter V.). The reproaches of Meïr Randegger (d. 1853) concerning his Biblical corrections Reggio answered by stating that every one was permitted to interpret the text according to his understanding, provided such interpretations were not in opposition to the principles of the Jewish religion (ib. Letter XXX.).

An opponent of casuistry, Reggio rejected haggadic Biblical interpretations and the pilpulistic study of the Talmud. He was persecuted by many German rabbis on account of his liberal views; even his father did not wholly approve of his methods. Nevertheless, in 1846, after his father's death, the community of Göritz insisted upon his accepting the rabbinical office; he agreed, but declined to receive the salary attached to it. After occupying the position for ten years he resigned.

Mat the merit of Rabbi Isaac Samuel Reggio protect us all. Amen