LA LINGUA DELLA PREGHIERA SINAGOGALE IN UN TESTO INEDITO DI SAMUEL DAVID LUZZATTO

This contribution presents and historically frames an unpublished manuscript by Samuel David Luzzatto, a central figure for the modernization of Italian Judaism, dedicated to the use of the Hebrew language for synagogue prayer. The text is kept by Fondo Shadal at Biblioteca dell’Ebraismo Italiano “Tullia Zevi”. It emphasizes the need to pray in Hebrew, not because the lan guage of worship has been made compulsory by tradition, but because for Luz zatto the use of the Hebrew language is the constitutive element of the identity of the people