JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

a yeshivah, Neveh Shalom. Later, he was appointed rabbi in
Leghorn, and remained there until his death. Ergas became
famous for his pamphlet Tokhaḥat Megullah, the polemic
against the Shabbatean Nehemiah *Ḥayon, and an addition to
it called Ha-Ẓad Naḥash (London, 1715). His kabbalistic works
include Shomer Emunim (Amsterdam, 1736), in which he explains
the principles of the Kabbalah in the form of a dialogue
between Shaltiel, who believes only in the revealed Torah, and
Jehoiada, the victor in this argument, who believes also in the
esoteric aspect of the Torah; Shomer Emunim includes Mevo
Petaḥim, an appendix to the former, a selection from *Luria’s
doctrine, and an introduction to the Kabbalah, and Minḥat
Yosef, an ethical-religious anthology and the rules for the study
of the kabbalistic doctrines. A selection of his responsa was
published by his disciple Malachi Ha-Kohen as Divrei Yosef
(Leghorn, 1742). The publisher’s introduction mentions several
piyyutim written by Ergas. Ergas was an enthusiastic believer
in the importance and sanctity of the Kabbalah in general
and of the *Zohar in particular, despite his view that marginal
annotations had been introduced into the proper text of the
Zohar. He opposed philosophy, which he considered alien to
Judaism and an invention of heretics. He opposed *Maimonides’
explanations of the stories of the Creation and the visions
of Ezekiel in the spirit of Aristotle’s natural philosophy.
Ergas’ style is distinguished by its clarity.
Ergas’ Kabbalah evinces affinities with that of Moses
Ḥayyim *Luzzatto, and tension over this issue developed between
the two kabbalists.
Bibliography: Joseph ben Emanuel Ergas, Shomer Emunim,
ed. by S.A. Horodezky (repr. 1927), introd. Add. Bibliography:
R. Goetschel, “La justification de la kabbale dans le ‘Shômer
Emûnîm’ of Joseph Ergas (1685–1730),” in: U. Haxen, H. Trautner-
Kromann, and K.L. Goldschmidt Salamon (eds.), Jewish Studies in
a New Europe; Proceedings of the Fifth Congress of Jewish Studies in
Copenhagen (1994), 269–81.
[Azriel Shochat]
ERIK, MAX (pseudonym of Zalmen Merkin; 1898–1937),
Yiddish literary critic and literary historian. Born in Sosnowiec
(Poland), Erik was educated privately (among his tutors
was Ḥayyim Naḥman *Bialik) and in a traditional ḥeder. He
later studied at a Russian-language high school and at a Polish
officers’ training school from which he graduated as a reserve
officer. His uncle was Yitzkhak Peysekzon, a founder of
the Jewish Labor Bund. In 1922 he settled in Vilna where he
taught Yiddish and Polish literature in Yiddish-language high
schools. Erik published his first essays in 1920 on neo-Romanism
and Hugo Tsukerman in I.M. Weissenberg’s Yudishe Zamelbikher
and then contributed studies, essays, and critical
articles to various Yiddish periodicals including Ringen, Literarishe
Bleter, Bikher Velt, and the Vilner Tog. His first works
on Yiddish literature were Konstruktsiye Shtudiyen: tsu der
Konstruktsye fun der Goldene Keyt (“Construction Studies:
On the Construction of the Golden Chain,” 1924), an analysis
of the variants of I.L. *Peretz’s plays; Vegn Alt-Yidishn Roman
un Novele – 14ter–16ter Yorhundert (“On the Old Yiddish
erikson, erik homberger
Novel – 14th–16th Centuries,” 1926); and Di Geshikhte fun der
Yidisher Literatur fun di Eltste Tsaytn biz der Haskole Tekufe
(“History of Yiddish Literature – from the Beginning to the
Haskalah Period,” 1928). Erik’s work helped found the field
of Old Yiddish studies. He also formulated the long-dominant
but now disproven theory of Yiddish shpilmener (“troubadours”)
who composed, or adapted from other languages,
the extant Old Yiddish epics. In 1929 Erik settled in the Soviet
Union. He lived in Minsk and Kiev and taught Yiddish literature
at various Jewish institutions of higher learning. Increasingly,
his works in this period were written from the official
party-line point of view and include a study of Sholem *Asch
(1931); Etyudn tsu der Geshikhte fun der Haskole (“Studies in
the History of the Haskalah,” 1934); and Di Yidishe Literatur
in XIX Yorhundert, vol. 1, coauthored with A. Rosenzweig (“A
History of Yiddish Literature in the 19th century,” 1935). He also
edited Di Komedies fun der Berliner Ufklerung (“The Comedies
of the Berlin Haskalah,” 1933) and a selection of the works of
Solomon *Ettinger (1935). Upon the liquidation of the Institute
for Jewish Proletarian Culture of the Ukrainian Academy of
Science in May 1936, Erik was arrested and exiled to the Vietlosian
prison camp in Siberia, where he died.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 815–8; J. Shatzky,
in: J. Opatoshu and H. Leivick (eds.), Zamlbikher, 8 (1952), 41–54.
Add. Bibliography: LNYL, 7 (1968), 37–41; A.A. Greenbaum, Jewish
Scholarship and Scholarly Institutions in Soviet Russia, 1918–1953
(1978); C. Shmeruk, in: Studies in Yiddish Literature and Folklore, 7
(1986) 1–36.
[Elias Schulman / Barry Trachtenberg (2nd ed.)]
ERIKSON, ERIK HOMBERGER (1902–1994), U.S. psychoanalyst.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Erikson immigrated to
the U.S. in 1933. He taught and did research at Harvard, Yale,
and the University of California until 1951, when he joined the
senior staff of the Austen Riggs Center at Stockbridge, Mass. In
1960 he was appointed professor of human development and
psychiatry at Harvard. Erikson’s research into the cultures of
the Yurok and Sioux Indians resulted in Childhood and Society
(1950, 19632), in which he discussed childbearing methods and
human development. In the same book he dealt with the evolution
of identity and character, including the American and
German, and with antisemitism and the role of Jews in changing
culture. In Young Man Luther (1958), Erikson related the
reformer’s adolescent crisis of identity (identity versus identity
diffusion) and the historical crisis of his age. He later clarified
his concept of the synthesis of the ego through successive
identifications by the child with individuals, group ideals, and
goals. His Insight and Responsibility (1966) discusses the ethical
implications of psychoanalytic insight and the responsibility
of each generation to succeeding generations.
Other books by Erikson include Identity: Youth and Crisis
(1968), Gandhi’s Truth on the Origins of Militant Nonviolence
(1969), The Twentieth-century Sciences: Studies in the Biography
of Ideas (1972), Dimensions of a New Identity (1974), Life
History and the Historical Moment (1975), Toys and Reasons:
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 479