Zemirot Yisrael (also Sefer Zemirot Yisrael, “Songs of Israel”) is a Hebrew edition of the Book of Psalms (Tehillim) built around Moses Mendelssohn’s German translation of the biblical text, printed in Hebrew letters, together with Joel Bril’s (Yoel Brill) Hebrew commentary and introductions. The catalog records the work under Mendelssohn, but the edition itself is collaborative: it presents the Psalms text, Mendelssohn’s translation, Bril’s elucidation, and the commentary of Sforno (Seforno).
The main body of the work is the Hebrew text of Psalms accompanied by Mendelssohn’s translation in Hebrew characters—the so-called Targum Ashkenazi—and Bril’s commentary. Bril’s elucidation explains the Psalms in relation to Mendelssohn’s translation and draws on a broad range of Jewish textual sources. The edition also includes plates illustrating ancient musical instruments, reflecting the work’s interest in identifying the instruments named in the Psalms.
A major part of the book is Bril’s three lengthy Hebrew introductions, which constitute a work in their own right. They treat the Psalms as poetry and address questions of poetry, translation, and music. The introductions set out a theory of biblical poetry and of translation, discuss the nature of sacred song, and consider the role of music and musical instruments in the Psalms. They also articulate a reading of Mendelssohn’s language philosophy and aesthetics: the introductions present the aesthetic experience of the divine through sacred poetry as central to human felicity, and in this connection present Mendelssohn as a critic of Maimonides, who had located felicity in union with the Active Intellect. Bril’s introductions are marked by a wide range of textual sources and by linguistic innovations in Hebrew.
The work is divided into four parts, each with its own title page and pagination. In its own terms, therefore, Zemirot Yisrael is not a bare translation or a prayer book but a study edition of Psalms: the Hebrew biblical text, Mendelssohn’s German translation in Hebrew letters, Bril’s commentary, Sforno’s commentary, and introductory essays on poetry, translation, and music.
The edition’s arrangement—Hebrew Psalms with Mendelssohn’s German translation in Hebrew characters—is central to its character as a study text. It lets the reader move between the biblical Hebrew and Mendelssohn’s rendering without leaving the typographic world of a Hebrew book. Bril’s commentary then serves as a guide to that movement, explaining lexical choices, poetic images, and difficult phrases in light of the translation. The book thus records an exegetical collaboration: Mendelssohn’s translation is not a freestanding German Bible but the object of Hebrew commentary.
Bril’s introductions supply the edition’s intellectual frame. They treat the Psalter as a corpus of sacred poetry and ask how such poetry should be translated and sung. The discussion of music is not incidental: it connects the Psalms’ musical headings and instrument names to a larger account of sacred song, and the plates of ancient instruments support that account visually. The result is a book that presents Psalms as both literary text and performed music.
The presence of Sforno alongside Bril creates a layered commentary. Sforno supplies a medieval exegetical voice, while Bril’s notes mediate between the medieval commentary, Mendelssohn’s translation, and other Jewish sources. This layering is one of the book’s distinctive features: it does not replace traditional commentary with a modern translation but sets them side by side.
Philosophically, the work advances a claim about the religious value of aesthetics. Bril’s introductions use Mendelssohn’s language philosophy and aesthetics to argue that the experience of the divine through sacred poetry is central to human felicity; in doing so they present Mendelssohn as a critic of Maimonides’ intellectualist account of felicity. The edition therefore has a thesis: the Psalms are not only to be decoded but to be experienced as poetry and music, and that experience has religious and moral significance.
