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Page 46
Levinsohn's life was a continuous struggle against an insidious disease,
which kept him confined to his bed, and prevented him from accepting any
prominent position. But though, as he said, he had "neither brother,
wife, child, nor even a sound body," he impressed his personality upon
Russian Jewry as no one else, save the Gaon, had before him. His breadth
of view and his sympathetic disposition gradually won him the respect
and love of all who knew him. The zaddikim Abraham of Turisk and Israel
Rasiner were his lifelong friends; the Talmudist Strashun acknowledged
his indebtedness to him, and Rabbi Abele of Vilna remarked jestingly
that the only fault to be found with the _Te'udah_ was that its author
was not the Gaon Elijah. He enjoyed prominence in Government circles,
and Prince Wittgenstein was passionately fond of his company. Above all
he endeared himself to the Maskilim. To him they looked as to their
teacher and guide; him they consulted in every emergency. Lebensohn and
Gottlober, Mandelstamm and Gordon, equally sought his criticism and
advice. For all he had words of comfort and encouragement. The younger
Maskilim he warned not to waste their time in idle versification, not to
become intoxicated with their little learning; and the older ones he
implored to respect the sentiments of their conservative coreligionists.
"Take it not amiss," he would say to the latter, "that the great bulk of
our people hearken not as yet to our new teachings. All beginnings are
difficult. The drop cannot become a deluge instantaneously. Persevere in
your laudable ambition, publish your good and readable books, and the
result, though slow, is sure."
Thus lived and labored the first of the Maskilim, an idealist from
beginning to end. Persecution did not embitter, nor poverty depress him.
And when he passed away quietly (February 12, 1860) in the obscure
little town in which he had been born, and which has become famous
through him, it was felt that Russia had had her Mendelssohn, too.
Strange to say, he little suspected the tremendous influence he exerted
upon the Haskalah movement, but was quite sanguine of the success of his
fight for "truth and justice among the nations." His work he modestly
summed up in the epitaph which was inscribed on his tombstone at his
request:
Out of nothing God called me to life.
Alas, earthly life has passed, and I must
Sleep again on the bosom of Mother Nature.
Witness this stone. I fought with God's
Foes, not with a Sword, but with the Word;
I fought for Truth and Justice among the Nations
And _Zerubbabel_ and _Efes Dammim_ testify thereto.
Contemporaneous with Isaac B�r Levinsohn, and hardly less distinguished
and influential, was Mordecai Aaron G�nzburg (ReMAG, Salanti, Kovno,
December 3, 1795--Vilna, November 5, 1846). His family had been
prominent in many walks of life since the fourteenth century, and,
whether in the land of the Saxons or of the Slavs, represented the cream
of the Jewries in which they lived. His father was a Maskil of great
repute, who had written several treatises, in Hebrew, on algebra,
geometry, optics, and kindred subjects. He sought to supplement his son
Mordecai Aaron's heder education with a knowledge of secular sciences.
But at that time and in that place not many were the books, outside the
Talmud, accessible to a lad eager for learning, the only ones available
being such as the _Josippon_, _Zemah David_, and _She�rit Yisra�l_ on
Jewish History, the _Sefer ha-Berit_, and a Hebrew translation of
Mendelssohn's _Phaedon_ on general philosophy. But the precocious and
clear-minded youth did not need much to stimulate his love for history
and his inclination to philosophy, and his intellectual development
continued in spite of the untoward circumstances in which he happened to
be placed.
Though he was "given" in marriage at a very early age, the proverbial
"millstone" weighed but lightly upon the neck of young G�nzburg. He
never discontinued the habit of secluding himself in his study for
hours, sometimes for days, at a time, and there writing down his
thoughts in painstaking penmanship. These productions, with all their
crudity, promised, according to a keen critic, the flowers which would
one day "ripen into delicious fruit, not only pleasant to the sight but
also delicious to the taste." In fact, even his religious views
underwent but slight modification in later and maturer years. Ceremonial
laws, or minhagim, were to him a social compact among the members of a
sect. He who transgresses them is, _eo ipso_, excluded from the sect, as
he who disregards the social code, though not immoral, is ostracized
from society. This led him to the logical conclusion that every Jew must
comply with the customs of his people, though his opinion as to their
moral value may differ from that of the rest. He believed in freedom of
thought, but would not concede freedom of action or even of expression,
and would say with Bolingbroke, "Freedom belongs to a man as a rational
creature, he lies under the restraint as a member of society."
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