The first, widespread, modern translation of the Jewish texts is a work of Moses Mendelssohn, the prominent rabbi of the Jewish enlightenment, the “Haskalah”. He first published the German translation of the five books of Moses with commentaries. The text though is literary German, but was printed with Hebrew letters. His work divided the contemporary Jewish society. While the advocates of modernity welcomed it, many considered it a blasphemy. Vienna, 1818.