The author, Rabbi Yaakov Tzevi Mecklenburg was a German Jewish scholar of the 19th century, serving as Rabbi of Koenigsburg, East Prussia for 35 years (1831-65) until the day of his death. Haketav Vehakabbalah was first published in 1839, its intent being to strengthen the faith of Jews in the authenticity of our traditional Jewish sources, the Mishna, the Talmud, the Midrash, and to prove the superior linguistic standard of all these sources. Rabbi Mecklenburg was at pains to demonstrate the indivisibility of the written Torah and its counterpart, the oral Torah