Cuba in the Bible? In a book eulogizing R. Chaim Volozhiner, 1821

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Here's something interesting. In 1821, R. Zvi Hirsch Katzenellenbogen of Vilna (1796-1868) published his  sermonic and poetic eulogies for R. Chaim Volozhiner, Nachal Dim'ah (link). Katzenellenbogen was one of the circle of early Vilna maskilim, which of course is not polite to say nowadays, since his works were used by Torah scholars. I note that in truth lines were blurry in those days, and circles overlapped, and some would say that he shouldn't be flatly categorized as an early Vilna Maskil (see, e.g., Gil S. Perl's dissertation on the Neziv, pg. 138 n. 330; I assume this is included in the book version, the recently published The Pillar of Volozhin).

However, the same way the story is that R. Yisrael Salanter declined to be Instructor of Talmud at the maskilic Rabbinical Seminary in Vilna, indeed fleeing into exile to avoid it, Katzenellenbogen was the one who filled a very similar position at the Seminary. Similarly, he represented the Vilna maskilim when Montefiore made his famous trip through the Pale in 1845, reportedly conversing and conferring with Montefiore's secretary Louis Loewe in Latin.

In any case, after the 40 pages devoted to R. Chaim, he included about ten pages of his own chiddushim on Talmud, Midrash and Tanakh, with the title Nachal Adanim. On page 24 (Hebrew pagination) he writes the following:














































No doubt he captured many excited hearts with his attempt to identify the obscure places mentioned in Ezekiel 35:5. But it surely is of interest, at least some, that he thinks that it refers to the archipelago near Australia which was - then - known as the "Gesellschaftliche Inseln." I think he may mean Indonesia, although I am unsure. He also suggests that it is the Freundschaftliche Inseln, which is a straight translation of the "Friendly Islands," so-called by Captain Cook. Finally, he suggests that Cub (Qub) could be a reference to . . . Cuba! (In the "West Indies," says he.)

Here seems like a good place to note that Ezekiel 30:5 (eretz ha-berit) is the scriptural basis for the term "Artzot Ha-berit," which has been used in Hebrew to refer to the United States for over 150 years. See my earlier post (link) on developing the Hebrew name for the United States, which takes us from  ×ž×“ינות × ×�רד ×�מעריק×�  in the 1820s to ×�רץ ×�נשי הברית in the 1840s, and finally, ×�רצות הברית.

Finally, it should be noted that Katzenellenbogen (or Katzenellen Bogen [ק�צענעלין בוגין], as he styled himself, using the now-archaic version of this surname) also wrote and published a eulogy for Hayyim Parhi (link) the wealthy Acre communal leader, treasurer and adviser to the Ottoman Pasha governing the Sidon province. He writes that after Farhi died, they said eulogies in the main Beit Midrash in Vilna. His own teacher, R. Saul, asked him to deliver a eulogy as well, which he did. He decided to write a poem, which takes the form of a conversation between Sefarad and Ashkenaz, with the theme that also these two branches of one family are separated, ultimately they are one. On pg. 10 he writes (under the rubric of "Sefarad and Ashekenaz" [together]) that

A voice on high is heard, there is no peace, only fear
A voice of dirge, from Sefarad and Ashkenaz, saying, "These two edges have been consumed by flames
In the North . . . and the South . . .
Living (chaim) they were, their souls departed . . ." 

While I don't vouch for the quality of the verse, there is a footnote, and he explains that here he refers to the departures of R.Chaim of Volozhin in the North (i.e., Lithuania) and his counterpart Chaim, the righteous, wealthy, Hayyim Farhi, of the Land of Splendor.