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Page 44
But it is scarcely possible, nor would it be profitable, to enumerate
either the places or the persons who were, so to speak, inoculated with
the Haskalah virus. In Grodno, Kovno, Lodz, Minsk, Mohilev, Pinsk,
Zamoscz, Slutsk, Vitebsk, Zhagory, and other places, they were toiling
zealously and diligently, these anchorites in the desert of knowledge.
Among them were men of all classes and callings, from the cloistered
Talmudist to the worldly merchant. The path of Haskalah was slowly yet
surely cleared. The efforts of the conservative Maskilim were not devoid
of some good results, nor even were those of Nicholas, though aimed at
Christianizing rather than civilizing, entirely wasted. With all their
shortcomings, and though producing but few rabbis acceptable to
Russo-Jewish congregations, the seminaries in Warsaw, Zhitomir, and
Vilna were powers for enlightenment. In them the future prominent
scientists, scholars, and litterateurs were reared, and there the
foundations were laid for the activities of Goldfaden, Gurland, Harkavy,
Kantor, Landau, Levanda, Mandelkern, Paperna, Pumpyansky, Rosenberg,
Steinberg, and others. Their fate was that of Mendelssohn's Bible
translation. The end became a means, the means, an end. But they not
only "brought forth" great men, they rendered no less important a
service in "bringing out" those already great. Had it not been for their
professorships, men like Abramovitsch, Lerner, Plungian, Slonimsky,
Suchastover, and Zweifel, who were not blessed with worldly goods like
F�nn, Katzenellenbogen, Luria, or Strashun, would probably have sought
in private teaching or petty trading a source of subsistence, and
Judaism in general and Russian Jewry in particular would have sustained
a considerable loss. They helped to prepare the soil, even to implant
the germ, and
Once the germ implanted,
Its growth, if slow, is sure.
As the history of this period is incomplete without an acquaintance with
the lives of some of the Maskilim who sowed the seeds that burst into
blossom under the favorable conditions of the "sixties," I shall select,
as specimens out of a multitude, the two who, more than any others,
furthered the cause of Haskalah, Isaac B�r Levinsohn and Mordecai Aaron
G�nzburg.[33]
Isaac B�r Levinsohn of Kremenetz, Volhynia (RiBaL, 1788-1860), was for
many years a name to conjure with, not only among the Maskilim of all
shades, but also among their opponents. Long before he reached man's
estate, he had entered upon the career to which he was to dedicate his
life. Even in those times of numerous child prodigies, Levinsohn was
distinguished for his intellectual precocity. At the age of three he was
ripe for the heder. At nine he was the author of a work on Cabbala. At
ten he mastered the Talmud, and knew the entire Hebrew Bible by heart.
But what singled him out among his classmates was his passionate love of
secular knowledge. The son of Judah Levin, an erudite merchant who knew
Hebrew and Polish to perfection, the grandson of Jekuthiel Solomon,
famed for wealth and refinement, he evinced unusual ability in selecting
and retaining what was good and true in everything he read. At fourteen
he was familiar with the literatures of several nations, so that during
the Franco-Russian war (1812) he easily secured an appointment as
interpreter and secretary in the local police department. But excessive
study caused ill-health, and at the suggestion of his physicians he went
to Brody in Galicia, a fortunate incident in the otherwise solitary and
gloomy life of the future reformer, for next to Germany Galicia played
an important part in the Haskalah movement in Russia. There he met
Joseph Perl, the noted educator; Doctor Isaac Erter, the immortal
satirist; M.H. Letteris, the distinguished poet; S.L. Rapoport, one of
the first and profoundest of Jewish historians, and Nahman Krochmal, the
saintly philosopher. Into this circle of "shining ones" Levinsohn was
introduced, and each and all left an impression, some greater, some
less, upon his plastic soul. It was there and then, in the congenial
company of friends of about his own age, that Levinsohn determined to
devote himself to improving the educational system of his people and
began to plan his work on _Learning in Israel_ (_Te'udah be-Yisra�l_),
which procured for its author the foremost place in the history of the
Haskalah movement.
The book was finished in 1823, but, owing to Levinsohn's pecuniary
circumstances, it remained unpublished till 1828. Meanwhile it
circulated in manuscript among the leading Maskilim of Russia, Austria,
and Germany, and established its author's reputation wherever it was
read. Levinsohn was one of those who understand the persuasive power of
the still small voice of sweet reasonableness. He knew that a few
convincing arguments couched in gentle language will accomplish more for
the furtherance of an ideal than the trumpet call of a hundred clamoring
militants, and Haskalah will make headway only when it can prove itself
to be a help, and not a hindrance, to religion. Accordingly, he aimed to
show that the Tanaim, Amoraim, Saboraim, Geonim, and rabbis of later
generations were versed in the sciences, were familiar with foreign
history, and interested in the affairs of the world. But these he quotes
only as exemplars of broad-mindedness, they must no longer be regarded
as authorities in secular knowledge. "Art and science," he says, "are
steadily progressing.... To perfect ourselves in them we must resort to
non-Jewish sources." This was a bold statement for those times, however
mildly expressed. The _Te'udah_ became a bone of contention. It was torn
and burnt by fanatics, exalted to the skies by friends. The new apostle
of enlightenment was forced to leave the city and reside for a while in
Berdichev, Nemirov, Ostrog, and Tulchin. But wherever he went, his
tribulation was sweetened by the enthusiasm of his admirers and the
consciousness that his toil was not entirely wasted. In Warsaw and in
Vilna his name was great, and Nicholas presented him with a thousand
rubles as a mark of appreciation of the book, the fly-leaf of which
bears the inscription "To science."
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