From Isaac Levy the Translator to Isaac Levy the Soldier
Post date: Mar 1, 2019 9:06:48 AM
Kalman Sporn sent me the following picture and text:
Passover on the Front Lines - In this letter to his sister Leonora from an encampment in Adams Run, South Carolina, Confederate soldier Isaac Levy described his preparations for celebrating Passover in the field.
In the note written in Hebrew characters in the middle of the page, Levy reported that their brother Zeke had traveled to Charleston for provisions, including matzot [unleavened bread].
He also tells his sister that both he and his brother were "observing the festival in a truly orthodox style."
Isaac Levy to his sister Leonora Levy. Holograph letter, April 24, 1864.
Amy Hart Stewart Papers.
Courtesy of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati (117)
The irony of the above is that this soldier, Isaac Levy, used for this seder a Haggadah with a mistake in the English translation which was caused by his namesake Isaac Levy in 1808!The Haggadah he probably used was one printed by H. Frank printed in New York. Frank, being the second publisher to print a Haggadah with English translation in the USA, after Jackson's 1837 edition, copied Jackson's English translation. We find on Frank's 4th edition from 1857 the same assertion as on Jackson's Haggadah: "With the English translation of the late David Levy of London". Neither Jackson nor Frank knew that the translation they were using was actually NOT by David Levy at all.David Levy was the second ever translator of the Haggadah into English (1794) in London. His translation was very precise and well researched. But for whatever reason, this translation was "revised" by the (unknown) Isaac Levy in 1808 (still in London). Isaac actually made several mistakes in his translation amongst others he mixed up the order of the plagues! Apparently, he was also an obnoxious person who did not get along with his publisher H. Barnett so by 1831 Isaac's name is deleted from Barnett's Haggadot and replaced by..... David Levy. And thus Isaac's mistaken translation with David's name crossed the Atlantic and reached Jackson in the USA.By the time the above-mentioned soldier Isaac Levy in 1864 prepared for his Pesach the only Haggadot available would have been the ones printed by Jackson and Frank, both with Isaac Levy's erroneous translation so when soldier Isaac read the English translation of the plagues he read them in translator Isaac Levy's wrong order!