Mapu’s Meliẓah, Auerbach’s Figura and Mendelsohn’s Sublime Rhetoric and the Critique of Haskalah Ideology

This article revisits the concept of meliẓah (eloquent language) and its significance in the development of Hebrew literary thought. The study begins with an analysis of meliẓah in the works of maskilim and scholars of Haskalah such as Euchel, Zederbaum, and Finer, who typically viewed meliẓah as a derivative concept that serves a wider philosophical or historical framework. The main body of the article explores how maskilim used meliẓah and figurative language in ways that question the aesthetic affirmation of philosophical knowledge and challenge established views of historical continuity. Drawing from Erich Auerbach’s elaborate discussion of figurative speech, this study illustrates how Hebrew writers, including Moses Mendelssohn and Abraham Mapu, employed meliẓot not just to embellish already-accepted images of nature or history. In a manner akin to Auerbach’s figura, meliẓah highlights the evasive, transitory, and ideological aspects of literary mediations of history, leading to alternative mediations. The concluding sections focus on Abraham Mapu’s fictional portrayal of meliẓah, arguing it should not be read as an imitation of Alexander Pope’s concept of “wit.” Instead of portraying nature or history in their “methodized” version, I show how Mapu’s fiction deprives historical fiction of its rationalist and idealist aura. Rather than self-justifying images, Mapu’s meliẓot operate as rhetorical structures that summon up conflicted versions of social reality.