E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, David King, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 15921-h.htm or 15921-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/9/2/15921/15921-h/15921-h.htm)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/9/2/15921/15921-h.zip)
THE HASKALAH MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA
by
JACOB S. RAISIN, PH.D., D.D.
Author of _Sect, Creed and Custom in Judaism_, etc.
Philadelphia
The Jewish Publication Society of America
1913
_And the "Maskilim" shall shine
As the brightness of the firmament ...
Many shall run to and fro,
And knowledge shall be increased_.
--Dan. xii. 3-4
[Illustration: TOBIAS COHN
1652-1759
FROM THE FRONTISPIECE OF HIS MA'ASEH TOBIAH]
TO AARON S. RAISIN
Your name, dear father, will not be found in the following pages, for,
like "the waters of the Siloam that run softly," you ever preferred to
pursue your useful course in unassuming silence. Yet, as it is your
life, devoted entirely to meditating, learning, and teaching, that
inspired me in my effort, I dedicate this book to you; and I am happy to
know that I thus not only dedicate it to one of the noblest of Maskilim,
but at the same time offer you some slight token of the esteem and
affection felt for you by
Your Son,
JACOB S. RAISIN
CONTENTS
PREFACE 11
CHAPTER I. THE PRE-HASKALAH PERIOD 17
CHAPTER II. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 53
CHAPTER III. THE DAWN OF HASKALAH 110
CHAPTER IV. CONFLICTS AND CONQUESTS 162
CHAPTER V. RUSSIFICATION, REFORMATION, AND ASSIMILATION 222
CHAPTER VI. THE AWAKENING 268
NOTES 305
BIBLIOGRAPHY 331
INDEX 339
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TOBIAS COHN (1652-1759) Frontispiece
ISAAC BÄR LEVINSOHN (1788-1860) facing page 64
MAX LILIENTHAL (1815-1882) " " 120
ALEXANDER ZEDERBAUM (1816-1893) " " 175
PEREZ BEN MOSHEH SMOLENSKIN (1842-1885) " " 220
MOSES LÖB LILIENBLUM (1843-1910) " " 280
PREFACE
To the lover of mankind the history of the Russo-Jewish renaissance is
an encouraging and inspiring phenomenon. Seldom has a people made such
rapid strides forward as the Russian Jews. From the melancholy
regularity that marked their existence a little more than two
generations ago, from the darkness of the Middle Ages in which they were
steeped until the time of Alexander II, they emerged suddenly into the
life and light of the West, and some of the most intrepid devotees of
latter-day culture, both in Europe and in America, have come from among
them. Destitute of everything that makes for enlightenment, and under
the dominion of a Government which sought to extinguish the few
rushlights that scattered the shadows around them, they nevertheless
snatched victory from defeat, sloughed off medieval superstition, and,
disregarding the Dejanira shirt of modern disabilities, compelled their
countrymen to admit more than once that
Tho' I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am!
Similar movements were started in Germany during the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and in Austria, notably Galicia, at the beginning of
the nineteenth, but none stirred the mind of the Jews to the same degree
as the Haskalah movement in Russia during the last fifty years. In the
former, the removal of restrictions soon rendered attempts toward
self-emancipation unnecessary on the part of Jews, and the few Maskilim
among them, satisfied with the present, devoted themselves to
investigating and elucidating the past of their people's history. In
Russia the past was all but forgotten on account of the immediate duties
of the present. The energy and acquisitiveness that made the Jews of
happier and more prosperous lands prominent in every sphere of practical
life, were directed toward the realm of thought, and the merciless
severity with which the Government excluded them from the enjoyment of
things material only increased their ardor for things spiritual and
intellectual.
In its wide sense Haskalah denotes enlightenment. Those who strove to
enlighten their benighted coreligionists or disseminate European culture
among them, were called Maskilim. A careful perusal of this work will
reveal the exact ideals these terms embody. For Haskalah was not only
progressive, it was also aggressive, militant, sometimes destructive.
From the days of Mordecai Günzburg to the time of Asher Ginzberg (Ahad
Ha-'Am), it changed its tendencies and motives more than once.
Levinsohn, "the father of the Maskilim," was satisfied with removing the
ban from secular learning; Gordon wished to see his brethren "Jews at
home and men abroad"; Smolenskin dreamed of the rehabilitation of Jews
in Palestine; and Ahad Ha-'Am hopes for the spiritual regeneration of
his beloved people. Others advocated the levelling of all distinctions
between Jews and Gentiles, or the upliftment of mankind in general and
Russia in particular. To each of them Haskalah implied different ideals,
and through each it promulgated diverse doctrines. To trace these
varying phases from an indistinct glimmering in the eighteenth century
to the glorious effulgence of the beginning of the twentieth, is the
main object of this book.
In pursuance of my end, I have paid particular attention to the causes
that retarded or accelerated Russo-Jewish cultural advance. As these
causes originate in the social, economic, and political status of the
Russian Jew, I frequently portray political events as well as the state
of knowledge, belief, art, and morals of the periods under
consideration. For this reason also I have marked the boundaries of the
Haskalah epochs in correspondence to the dates of the reigns of the
several czars, though the correspondence is not always exact.
Essays have been published, on some of the topics treated in these
pages, by writers in different languages: in Russian, by Bramson,
Klausner, and Morgulis; in Hebrew, by Izgur, Katz, and Klausner; in
German, by Maimon, Lilienthal, Wengeroff, and Weissberg; in English, by
Lilienthal and Wiener; and in French, by Slouschz. The subject as a
whole, however, has not been treated. Should this work stimulate further
research, I shall feel amply rewarded. Without prejudice and without
partiality, by an honest presentation of facts drawn from what I regard
as reliable sources, I have tried to unfold the story of the struggle of
five millions of human beings for right living and rational thinking, in
the hope of throwing light on the ideals and aspirations and the real
character of the largely prejudged and misunderstood Russian Jew.
In conclusion, I wish to express my gratitude and indebtedness to those
who encouraged me to proceed with my work after some specimens of it had
been published in several Jewish periodicals, especially to Doctor
Solomon Schechter, Rabbi Max Heller, and Mr. A.S. Freidus, for their
courtesy and assistance while the work was being written.
JACOB S. RAISIN.
E. Las Vegas, N. Mex.,
Thanksgiving Day, 1909.
CHAPTER I
THE PRE-HASKALAH PERIOD
?-1648
"There is but one key to the present," says Max Müller, "and that is the
past." To understand fully the growth and historical development of a
people's mind, one must be familiar with the conditions that have shaped
its present form. It would seem necessary, therefore, to introduce a
description of the Haskalah movement with a rapid survey of the history
of the Russo-Polish Jews from the time of their emergence from obscurity
up to the middle of the seventeenth century.
Among those who laid the foundations for the study of this almost
unexplored department of Jewish history, the settlement of Jews in
Russia and their vicissitudes during the dark ages, the most prominent
are perhaps Isaac Bär Levinsohn, Abraham Harkavy, and Simon Dubnow.
There is much to be said of each of these as writers, scholars, and men.
Here they concern us as Russo-Jewish historians. What Linnaeus, Agassiz,
and Cuvier did in the field of natural philosophy, they accomplished in
their chosen province of Jewish history.[1] Levinsohn was the first to
express the opinion that the Russian Jews hailed, not from Germany, as
is commonly supposed, but from the banks of the Volga. This hypothesis,
corroborated by tradition, Harkavy established as a fact. Originally the
vernacular of the Jews of Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev was Russian and
Polish, or, rather, the two being closely allied, Palaeo-Slavonic. The
havoc wrought by the Crusades in the Jewish communities of Western
Europe caused a constant stream of German-Jewish immigrants to pour,
since 1090, into the comparatively free countries of the Slavonians.
Russo-Poland became the America of the Old World. The Jewish settlers
from abroad soon outnumbered the native Jews, and they spread a new
language and new customs wherever they established themselves.[2]
Whether the Jews of Russia were originally pagans from the shores of the
Black and Caspian Seas, converted to Judaism under the Khazars during
the eighth century, or Palestinian exiles subjugated by their Slavonian
conquerors and assimilated with them, it is indisputable that they
inhabited what we know to-day as Russia long before the Varangian prince
Rurik came, at the invitation of Scythian and Sarmatian savages, to lay
the foundation of the Muscovite empire. In Feodosia there is a synagogue
at least a thousand years old. The Greek inscription on a marble slab,
dating back to 80-81 B.C.E., preserved in the Imperial Hermitage in St.
Petersburg, makes it certain that they flourished in the Crimea before
the destruction of the Temple. In a communication to the Russian
Geographical Society, M. Pogodin makes the statement, that there still
exist a synagogue and a cemetery in the Crimea that belong to the
pre-Christian era. Some of the tombstones, bearing Jewish names, and
decorated with the seven-branched Menorah, date back to 157 B.C.E.;
while Chufut-Kale, also known as the Rock of the Jews (Sela'
ha-Yehudim), from the fortress supposed to have been built there by the
Jews, would prove Jewish settlements to have been made there during the
Babylonian or Persian captivity.[3]
Though the same antiquity cannot be established for other Jewish
settlements, we know that Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities," had many
Jews long before the eighth century, who thus antedated the Russians as
citizens. According to Joseph Hakohen they came there from Persia in
690, according to Malishevsky in 776. It is certain that their influence
was felt as early as the latter part of the tenth century. The Russian
Chronicles ascribed to Nestor relate that they endeavored, in 986, to
induce Grand Duke Vladimir to accept their religion. They did not
succeed as they had succeeded two centuries before with the khan of the
Khazars.[4] Yet the grand duke, who had the greatest influence in
introducing and spreading Greek Catholicism, and who is now worshipped
as a saint, was always favorably disposed toward them.
There were other places that were inhabited early by Jews. There are
traditions to the effect that Jews lived in Poland as early as the ninth
century, and under the Boreslavs (992-1278) they are said to have
enjoyed considerable privileges, carried on a lively trade, and spread
as far as Kiev. Chernigov in Little Russia (the Ukraine), Baku in South
Russia (Transcaucasia), Kalisz and Warsaw, Brest and Grodno, in West
Russia (Russian Poland), all possess Jewish communities of considerable
antiquity. In the townlet Eishishki, near Vilna, a tombstone set in 1171
was still in existence at the end of the last century, and Khelm,
Government Kovno, has a synagogue to which tradition ascribes an age of
eight hundred years.[5]
The Jewish population in all these communities was prosperous and
respected. Jews were in favor with the Government, enjoyed equal rights
with their Gentile neighbors, and were especially prominent as traders
and farmers of taxes. Their monoxyla, or one-oared canoes, loaded with
silks, furs, and precious metals, issued from the Borysthanes, traversed
the Baltic and the Euxine, the Oder and the Bosphorus, the Danube and
the Black Sea, and carried on the commerce between the Turks and the
Slavonians. They were granted the honorable and lucrative privilege of
directing and controlling the mints, and that of putting Hebrew as well
as Slavonic inscriptions on their coins.[6] In the Lithuanian Magna
Charta, granted by Vitold in 1388, the Jews of Brest were given many
rights, and about a year later those of Grodno were permitted to engage
in all pursuits and occupations, and exempted from paying taxes on
synagogues and cemeteries. They possessed full jurisdiction in their own
affairs. Some were raised to the nobility, notably the Josephovich
brothers, Abraham and Michael. Under King Alexander Jagellon, Abraham
was assessor of Kovno, alderman of Smolensk, and prefect of Minsk; he
was called "sir" (jastrzhembets), was presented with the estates of
Voidung, Grinkov, and Troki (1509), and appointed Secretary of the
Treasury in Lithuania (1510). The other brother, Michael, was made
"fiscal agent to the king." In the eighteenth century, Andrey
Abramovich, of the same family but not of the Jewish faith, was senator
and castellan of Brest-Litovsk.[7] They were not unique exceptions.
Abraham Shmoilovich of Turisk is spoken of as "honorable sir" in leases
of large estates. Affras Rachmailovich and Judah Bogdanovich figure
among the merchant princes of Livonia and Lithuania; and Francisco Molo,
who settled later in Amsterdam, was financial agent of John III of
Poland in 1679. The influence of the last-named was so great with the
Dutch States-General that the Treaty of Ryswick was concluded with Louis
XIV, in 1697, through his mediation.[8]
That Russo-Poland should have elected a Jewish king on two occasions, a
certain Abraham Prochovnik in 842 and the famous Saul Wahl[9] in the
sixteenth century, sounds legendary; but that there was a Jewish queen,
called Esterka, is probable, and that some Jews attained to political
eminence is beyond reasonable doubt.[10] Records have been discovered
concerning two envoys, Saul and Joseph, who served the Slavonic czar
about 960, and an interesting story is told of two Jewish soldiers,
Ephraim Moisievich and Anbal the Jassin, who won the confidence of
Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Kiev, and afterwards became leaders in a
conspiracy against him (1174).[11] Henry, Duke of Anjou, the successor
of Sigismud August on the throne of Poland and Lithuania, owed his
election mainly to the efforts of Solomon Ashkenazi. Ivan Vassilyevich,
too, had many and important relations with Jews, and his favorable
attitude towards them is amply proved by the fact that his family
physician was the Jew Leo (1490). Throughout his reign he maintained an
uninterrupted friendship with Chozi Kokos, a Jew of the Crimea, and he
did not hesitate to offer hospitality and protection to Zacharias de
Guizolfi, though the latter was not in a position to reciprocate such
favors.[12]
In addition there are less prominent individuals who received honors at
the hands of their non-Jewish countrymen. Meïr Ashkenazi of Kaffa, in
the Crimea, who was slain by pirates on a trip from "Gava to Dakhel,"
was envoy of the khan of the Tatars to the king of Poland in the
sixteenth century. Mention is made of "Jewish Cossacks," who
distinguished themselves on the field of battle, and were elevated to
the rank of major and colonel.[13] While the common opinion regarding
Jews expressed itself in merry England in such ballads as "The Jewish
Dochter," and "Gernutus, the Jew of Venice," many a Little Russian song
had the bravery of a Jewish soldier as its burden. In everything save
religion the Jews were hardly distinguishable from their neighbors.
There are--writes Cardinal Commendoni, an eye-witness--a great
many Jews in these provinces, including Lithuania, who are not,
as in other places, regarded with disrespect. They do not
maintain themselves miserably by base profits; they are landed
proprietors, are engaged in business, and even devote themselves
to the study of literature and, above all, to medicine and
astronomy; they hold almost everywhere the commission of levying
customs duties, are classed among the most honest people, wear
no outward mark to distinguish them from the Christians, and are
permitted to carry swords and walk about with their arms. In a
word they have equal rights with the other citizens.
A similar statement is made by Joseph Delmedigo, who spent many years in
Livonia and Lithuania as physician to Prince Radziwill.[14]
In his inimitable manner Gibbon describes the fierce struggle the Greek
Catholic Church had to wage before she obtained a foothold in Russia,
but he neglects to mention the fact that Judaism no less than paganism
was among her formidable opponents. The contest lasted several
centuries, and in many places it is undecided to this day.[15] The
Khazars, who had become proselytes in the eighth century, were
constantly encroaching upon Russian Christianity. Buoyant as both were
with the vigor of youth, missionary zeal was at its height among the two
contending religions. Each made war upon the other. We read that Photius
of Constantinople sent a message of thanks to Archbishop Anthony of
Kertch (858-859) for his efforts to convert the Jews; that the first
Bishop of the Established Church (1035) was "Lukas, the little Jew"
(Luka Zhidyata), who was appointed to his office by Yaroslav; and that
St. Feodosi Pechersky was fond of conversing with learned Jews on
matters of theology.[16] On the other hand, the efforts of the Jews were
not without success. The baptism of the pious Olga marks an era in
Russian Christianity, the beginning of the "Judaizing heresy," which
centuries of persecution only strengthened. In 1425, Zacharias of Kiev,
who is reputed to have "studied astrology, necromancy, and various other
magic arts," converted the priest Dionis, the Archbishop Aleksey, and,
through the latter, many more clergymen of Novgorod, Moscow, and Pskov.
Aleksey became a devout Jew. He called himself Abraham and his wife
Sarah. Yet, strange to say, he retained the favor of the Grand Duke Ivan
Vassilyevich, even after the latter's daughter-in-law, Princess Helena,
his secretary Theodore Kuritzin, the Archimandrite Sosima, the monk
Zacharias, and other persons of note had entered the fold of Judaism
through his influence.
The "heresy" spread over many parts of the empire, and the number of its
adherents constantly grew. Archbishop Nikk complains that in the very
monastery of Moscow there were presumably converted Jews, "who had again
begun to practice their old Jewish religion and demoralize the young
monks." In Poland, too, proselytism was of frequent occurrence,
especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The religious
tolerance of Casimir IV (1434-1502) and his immediate successors, and
the new doctrines preached by Huss and Luther, which permeated the upper
classes of society, rendered the Poles more liberal on the one hand, and
on the other the Jews more assertive. We hear of a certain nobleman,
George Morschtyn, who married a Jewess, Magdalen, and had his daughter
raised in the religion of her mother. In fact, at a time when Jews in
Spain assumed the mask of Christianity to escape persecution, Russian
and Polish Christians by birth could choose, with little fear of danger,
to lead the Jewish life. It was not till about the eighteenth century
that the Government began to resort to the usual methods of eradicating
heresy. Katharina Weigel, a lady famous for her beauty, who embraced
Judaism, was decapitated in Cracow at the instigation of Bishop Peter
Gamrat. On the deposition of his wife, Captain Vosnitzin of the Polish
navy was put to death by auto-da-fé (July 15, 1738). The eminent "Ger
Zedek," Count Valentine Pototzki, less fortunate than his comrade and
fellow-convert Zaremba, was burnt at the stake in Vilna (May 24, 1749),
and his teacher in the Jewish doctrines, Menahem Mann, was tortured and
executed a few months later, at the age of seventy. But these measures
proved of little avail. According to Martin Bielski, the noted
historian, Jews saved their proselytes from the impending doom by
transporting them to Turkey. Many of them sought refuge in Amsterdam.
For those who remained behind their new coreligionists provided through
collections made for that purpose in Russia and in Germany. To this day
these Russian and Polish proselytes adhere steadfastly to their faith,
and whether they migrate to America or Palestine to escape the
persecution of their countrymen, they seldom, if ever, indulge in the
latitudinarianism into which many of longer Jewish lineage fall so
readily when removed from old moorings.[17]
That the Russian Jews of the day were not altogether unenlightened, that
they not only practiced the Law devoutly, but also studied it
diligently, and cultivated the learning of the time as well, we may
safely infer from researches recently made. Cyril, or Constantine, "the
philosopher," the apostle to the Slavonians, acquired a knowledge of
Hebrew while at Kherson, and was probably aided by Jews in his
translation of the Bible into Slavonic. Manuscripts of Russo-Jewish
commentaries to the Scriptures, written as early as 1094 and 1124, are
still preserved in the Vatican and Bodleian libraries, and copyists were
doing fairly good work at Azov in 1274.
Jewish scholars frequented celebrated seats of learning in foreign
lands. Before the end of the twelfth century traces of them are to be
found in France, Italy, and Spain. That in the eleventh century Judah
Halevi of Toledo and Nathan of Rome should have been familiar with
Russian words cannot but be attributed to their contact with Russian
Jews. However, in the case of these two scholars, it may possibly be
ascribed to their great erudition or extensive travels. But the many
Slavonic expressions occurring in the commentaries of Rashi (1040-1105),
and employed by Joseph Caro (ab. 1140), Benjamin of Tudela (ab. 1160),
and Isaac of Vienna (ab. 1250), lend color to Harkavy's contention, that
Russian was once the vernacular of the Russian Jews, and they also argue
in favor of our contention, that these natives of the "land of
Canaan"--as the country of the Slavs was then called in Hebrew--came
into personal touch with the "lights and leaders" of other Jewish
communities. Indeed, Rabbi Moses of Kiev is mentioned as one of the
pupils of Jacob Tam, the Tosafist of France (d. 1170), and Asheri, or
Rosh, of Spain is reported to have had among his pupils Rabbi Asher and
Master (Bahur) Jonathan from Russia. From these peripatetic scholars
perhaps came the martyrs of 1270, referred to in the _Memorbuch_ of
Mayence. It was Rabbi Moses who, while still in Russia, corresponded
with Samuel ben Ali, head of the Babylonian Academy, and called the
attention of Western scholars to certain Gaonic decisions. Another
rabbi, Isaac, or Itshke, of Chernigov, was probably the first Talmudist
in England, and his decisions were regarded as authoritative on certain
occasions. These and others like them wrote super-commentaries on the
commentaries of Rashi and Ibn Ezra, the most popular and profound
scholars medieval Jewry produced, and made copies of the works of other
authors.[18]
Soon the Russo-Polish Jews established at home what they had been
compelled to seek abroad. Hearing of the advantages offered in the great
North-East, German Jews flocked thither in such numbers as to dominate
and absorb the original Russians and Poles. A new element asserted
itself. Names like Ashkenazi, Heilperin, Hurwitz, Landau, Luria,
Margolis, Schapiro, Weil, Zarfati, etc., variously spelled, took the
place, through intermarriage and by adoption, of the ancient Slavonic
nomenclature. The language, manners, modes of thought, and, to a certain
extent, even the physiognomy of the earlier settlers, underwent a more
or less radical change. In some provinces the conflict lasted longer
than in others. To this day not a few Russian Jews would seem to be of
Slavonic rather than Semitic extraction. As late as the sixteenth
century there was still a demand in certain places for a Russian
translation of the Hebrew Book of Common Prayer, and in 1635 Rabbi Meïr
Ashkenazi, who came from Frankfort-on-the-Main to study in Lublin, and
was retained as rabbi in Mohilev-on-the-Dnieper, had cause to exclaim,
"Would to God that our coreligionists all spoke the same
language--German."[19] Even Maimon, in the latter half of the eighteenth
century, mentions one, by no means an exception, who did not "understand
the Jewish language, and made use, therefore, of the Russian."[20] But
by the middle of the seventeenth century the amalgamation was almost
complete. It resulted in a product entirely new. As the invasion of
England by the Normans produced the Anglo-Saxon, so the inundation of
Russia by the Germans produced the Slav-Teuton. This is the clue to the
study of the Haskalah, as will appear from what follows.
Russo-Poland gradually became the cynosure of the Talmudic world, the
"Aksanye shel Torah," the asylum of the Law, whence "enlargement and
deliverance" arose for the traditions which the Jews carried with them,
through fire and water, during the dreary centuries of their dispersion.
It became to Jews what Athens was to ancient Greece, Rome to medieval
Christendom, New England to our early colonies. With the invention and
importation of the printing-press, the publication and acquisition of
the Bible, the Talmud, and most of the important rabbinic works were
facilitated. As a consequence, yeshibot, or colleges, for the study of
Jewish literature, were founded in almost every community. Their fame
reached distant lands. It became a popular saying that "from Kiev shall
go forth the Law, and the word of God from Starodub." Horodno, the
vulgar pronunciation of Grodno, was construed to mean Har Adonaï, "the
Mount of the Lord." A pious rabbi did not hesitate to write to a
colleague, "Be it known to the high honor of your glory that it is
preferable by far to dwell in the land of the Russ and promote the study
of the Torah in Israel than in the land of Israel."[21] Especially the
part of Poland ultimately swallowed up by Russia was the new Palestine
of the Diaspora. Thither flocked all desirous of becoming adepts in the
dialectics of the rabbis, "of learning how to swim in the sea of the
Talmud." It was there that the voluminous works of Hebrew literature
were studied, literally "by day and by night," and the subtleties of the
Talmudists were developed to a degree unprecedented in Jewish history.
Thither was sent, from the distant Netherlands, the youngest son of
Manasseh ben Israel, and he "became mighty in the Talmud and master of
four languages." Thither came, from Prague, the afterwards famous
Cabbalist, author, and rabbi, Isaiah Horowitz (ab. 1555-1630), and there
he chose to remain the rest of his days. Thither also went, from
Frankfort, the above-mentioned Meïr Ashkenazi, who, according to some,
was the first author of note in White Russia.
From everywhere they came "to pour water on the hands and sit at the
feet" of the great ones of the second Palestine.[22]
For Jewish solidarity was more than a word in those days. "Sefardim" had
not yet learned to boast of aristocratic lineage, nor "Ashkenazim" to
look down contemptuously upon their Slavonic coreligionists. It was
before the removal of civil disabilities from one portion of the Jewish
people had sowed the seed of arrogance toward the other less favored
portion. Honor was accorded to whom it was due, regardless of the
locality in which he happened to have been born. Glückel von Hameln
states in her _Memoirs_ that preference was sometimes given to the
decisions of the "great ones of Poland," and mentions with pride that
her brother Shmuel married the daughter of the great Reb Shulem of
Lemberg.[23] With open arms, Amsterdam, Frankfort, Fürth, Konigsberg,
Metz, Prague, and other communities renowned for wealth and learning,
welcomed the acute Talmudists of Brest, Grodno, Kovno, Lublin, Minsk,
and Vilna, whenever they were willing or compelled to consider a call.
The practice of summoning Russo-Polish rabbis to German posts was
carried so far that it aroused the displeasure of the Western scholars,
and they complained of being slighted.[24]
The reverence for Slavonic learning was strikingly illustrated during
the years following the Cossack massacres, when many Russo-Polish rabbis
fled for safety to foreign lands. Frankfort, Fürth, Prague, and Vienna
successively elected the fugitive Shabbataï Horowitz of Ostrog as their
religious guide. David Taz of Vladimir became rabbi of Steinitz in
Moravia; Ephraim Hakohen was called to Trebitsch in Moravia and to Ofen
in Hungary; David of Lyda, to Mayence and Amsterdam, and Naphtali Kohen,
to Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1704, and later to Breslau. No less
personages than Isaac Aboab and Saul Morteira welcomed the
merchant-Talmudist Moses Rivkes of Vilna when he sought refuge in
Amsterdam, and they entrusted to him the task of editing the _Shulhan
'Aruk_, his marginal notes to which, the _Beër ha-Golah_, have ever
since been printed with the text. In addition to rabbis, Lithuania and
other provinces furnished teachers for the young, melammedim, who
exerted considerable influence upon the people among whom they lived.
Their opinions, we are told, were highly valued in the choice of
rabbis.[25]
It must not be supposed that supremacy in the Talmud was secured at the
cost of secular knowledge, or what was then regarded as such. Their
familiarity with other branches of study was not inferior to that of the
Jews in better-known lands. Not a few of the prominent men united piety
with philosophy, and thorough knowledge of the Talmud with mastery of
one or more of the sciences of the time. Data on this phase of the
subject might have been much more abundant, had not the storm of
persecution suddenly swept over the communities, destroying them and
their records. What we still possess indicates what may have been lost.
The Ukraine was famous for its scholars. Among them was Jehiel Michael
of Nemirov, reputed to have been "versed in all the sciences of the
world."[26] Several of them were poets and grammarians. Poems of a
liturgical character are still extant in which they bemoan their plight
or assert their faith hopefully. Such were the poems of Ephraim of
Khelm, Joseph of Kobrin, Solomon of Zamoscz, and Shabbataï Kohen. The
last, eminent as a Talmudist, the author of commentaries on the _Shulhan
'Aruk_ approved by the leading rabbis of his generation, is also known
as a very trustworthy historian. His _Megillah 'Afah_, written in
classic Hebrew, is a valuable source of information on the critical
period in which he lived. He won the esteem of the Polish nobility by
his secular attainments. To judge from his correspondence, he must have
been on intimate terms with Vidrich of Leipsic.[27] Of the grammarians,
Jacob Zaslaver wrote on the Massorah, and Shabbataï Sofer was the author
of annotations and treatises.[28] Our taste in poetry and grammar is no
longer the same, but the polemic and apologetic writings of those days,
called forth by the discussions between Rabbanites and Karaites and by
the constant attacks of Christianity, are still of uncommon interest.
Specimens of the former kind are the polemics of Moses of Shavli, which
caused consternation in the camp of the Karaites. Of the apologetic
writings should be mentioned the reply, in Polish, of Jacob Nahman of
Belzyc to Martin Chekhovic (Lublin, 1581), and the _Hizzuk Emunah_ of
the Karaite Isaac ben Abraham of Troki. In the latter the weakness of
Christianity and the strength of Judaism are pointed out with trenchancy
never before reached. The work stirred up heated discussions among the
various Christian sects, with the tenets of which the author was
intimately acquainted. It was translated into Latin (1681, 1705),
Yiddish (1717), English (1851), and German (1865, 1873). Voltaire says
that all the arguments used by free-thinkers against Christianity were
drawn from it.[29]
In philosophy, mathematics, and medicine, the three main branches of
medieval knowledge, many Slavonian Jews attained eminence. Devout
Karaites as well as diligent Talmudists found secular learning a
diversion and a delight. For the lovers of enlightenment Italy,
especially Padua, was the centre of attraction, as France and Spain had
been before, and Germany, particularly Berlin, became afterwards.[30]
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century we find young Delacrut at
the University of Bologna, the philosopher and Cabbalist, known for his
commentaries to Gikatilla's _Sha'are Orah_ (Cracow, 1600) and Ben
Avigdor's _Mar'eh ha-Ofanim_ (1720), and his translation of Gossuin's
_L'image du monde_ (Amsterdam, 1733). His famous disciple Mordecai Jaffe
(Lebushim) spent ten years in the study of astronomy and mathematics
before he occupied the rabbinate of Grodno (1572)[31] At the request of
Yom-Tob Lipman Heller, Joseph ben Isaac Levi wrote a commentary on
Maimuni's _Moreh Nebukim_, which was published with the former's
annotations, _Gibe'at ha-Moreh_ (Prague, 1611). Deservedly or not,
Eliezer Mann was called "the Hebrew Socrates"; and many a Maskil in his
study of mathematics turned for guidance to Manoah Handel of
Brzeszticzka, Volhynia, author and translator of several scientific
works, who rendered seven Euclidean propositions into Hebrew.[32]
Polyglots they were compelled to be by force of circumstances. When the
exotic Judeo-German finally asserted itself as the vernacular, the
language in which they wrote and prayed was still the ancient Hebrew,
with which every one was familiar, and commercial intercourse with their
Gentile neighbors was hardly feasible without at least a smattering of
the local Slavonic dialect. "Look at our brethren in Poland," exclaims
Wessely many years later in his address to his countrymen. "They
converse with their neighbors in good Polish.... What excuse have we for
our brogue and jargon?" He might have had still better cause for
complaint, had he been aware that the Yiddish of the Russo-Polish Jews,
despite its considerable Slavonic admixture, was purer German than that
of his contemporaries in Germany, even as the English of our New England
colonies was superior to the Grub Street style prevalent in Dr.
Johnson's England, and the Spanish of our Mexican annexations to the
Castilian spoken at the time of Coronado. But we are here concerned with
their knowledge of foreign languages. We shall refer only to the
Hebrew-German-Italian-Latin-French dictionary _Safah Berurah_ (Prague,
1660; Amsterdam, 1701) by the eminent Talmudist Nathan Hannover.[33]
In medicine Jews were pre-eminent in the Slavonic countries, as they
were everywhere else. They were in great demand as court physicians,
though several had to pay with their lives "for having failed to effect
cures." Doctor Leo, who was at the court of Moscow in 1490, was
mentioned above. Jacob Isaac, the "nobleman of Jerusalem" (Yerosalimska
shlyakhta), was attached to the court of Sigismund, where he was held in
high esteem. Prince Radziwill's physician was Itshe Nisanovich, and
among those in attendance on John Sobieski were Jonas Casal and Abraham
Troki, the latter the author of several works on medicine and natural
philosophy.[34]
Medieval Jewish physicians were prone to travel, and those of
Russo-Poland were no exception. We find them in almost every part of the
civilized world, and their number increases with the disappearance of
prejudice. Some were noted Talmudists, such as Solomon Luria and Samuel
ben Mattathias. Abraham Ashkenazi Apotheker was not only a compounder of
herbs but a healer of souls, for the edification of which he wrote his
_Elixir of Life_ (_Sam Hayyim_, Prague, 1590). To the same class belong
Moses Katzenellenbogen and his son Hayyim, who was styled Gaon. In 1657
Hayyim visited Italy. He was welcomed by the prominent Jews of Mantua,
Modena, Venice, and Verona, but he preferred to continue the practice of
his profession in his home town Lublin.[35] Nor may we omit the names of
Stephen von Gaden and Moses Coën, because of their high standing among
their colleagues and the honors conferred upon them for their
statesmanship. Stephen von Gaden, who with Samuel Collins was
physician-in-ordinary to Czar Aleksey Mikhailovich, was instrumental in
removing many disabilities from the Jews of Moscow and in the interior
of Russia. Moses Coën, in consequence of the Cossack uprising, escaped
to Moldavia, and was made court physician by the hospodar Vassile Lupu.
But for Coën, Lupu would have been dethroned by those who conspired
against him. To his loyalty may probably be attributed the kind
treatment Moldavian Jews later enjoyed at the hands of the prince. Coën
also exposed the secret alliance between Russia and Sweden against
Turkey, and his advice was sought by the doge of Venice.[36]
The personage who typifies best the enlightened Slavonic Jew of the
pre-Haskalah period is Tobias Cohn (1652-1729). He was the son and
grandson of physicians, who practiced at Kamenetz-Podolsk and Byelsk,
and after 1648 went to Metz. After their father's death, he and his
older brother returned to Poland, whence Tobias, in turn, emigrated
first to Italy and then to Turkey. In Adrianople he was
physician-in-ordinary to five successive sultans. In the history of
medicine he is remembered as the discoverer of the _plica polonica_, and
as the publisher of a Materia Medica in three languages. To the student
of Haskalah he is interesting, because he marks the close of the old and
the beginning of the new era. Like the Maskilim of a century or two
centuries later, he compiled and edited an encyclopedia in Hebrew, that
"knowledge be increased among his coreligionists." His acquaintance with
learned works in several ancient and modern languages of which he was
master, enabled him to write his magnum opus, _Ma'aseh Tobiah_, with
tolerable ease. This work is divided into eight parts, devoted
respectively to theology, astronomy, pharmacy, hygiene, venereal
diseases, botany, cosmography, and chemistry. It is illustrated with
several plates, among them the picture of an astrolabe and one of the
human body treated as a house. From the numerous editions through which
it passed (Venice, 1707, 1715, 1728, 1769), we may conclude that it met
with marked success.[37]
* * * * *
To understand the _raison d'Être_ of the Haskalah movement, it may not
be superfluous to cast a glance at the inner social and religious life
of the Slavonic Jews during pre-Haskalah times. The labors of the farmer
are crowned with success only when nature lends him a helping hand. His
soil must be fertile, and blessed with frequent showers. Nor would the
Maskilim have accomplished their aim, had the material they found at
hand been different from what it was.
The Jews in the land of the Slavonians were fortunate in being regarded
as aliens in a country which, as we have seen, they inhabited long
before those who claimed to be its possessors by divine right of
conquest. If their position was precarious, their sufferings were those
of a conquered nation. As the whim and fancy of the reigning prince,
knyaz, varied, they were induced one day to settle in the country by the
offer of the most flattering privileges, and the next day they were
expelled, only to be requested to return again. Now their synagogues and
cemeteries were exempt from taxation, now an additional poll-tax or
land-tax was levied on every Jew (serebshizna); one day they were
allowed to live unhampered by restrictions, then they were prohibited to
wear certain garments and ornaments, and commanded to use yellow caps
and kerchiefs to distinguish them from the Gentiles (1566).
But all this was the consequence of political subjugation. Judged by the
standard of the times, they were veritable freemen, freer than the
Huguenots of France and the Puritans of England. They were left
unmolested in the administration of their internal affairs, and were
permitted to appoint their own judges, enforce their own laws, and
support their own institutions. Forming a state within a state, they
developed a civilization contrasting strongly with that round about
them, and comparing favorably with some of the features of ours of
to-day. Slavonic Jewry was divided into four districts, consisting of
the more important communities (kahals), to which a number of smaller
ones (prikahalki) were subservient. These, known as the Jewish
Assemblies (zbori zhidovskiye), met at stated intervals. As in our
federal Government, the administrative, executive, and legislative
departments were kept distinct, and those who presided over them
(roshim) were elected annually by ballot. These roshim, or elders,
served by turns for periods of one month each. The rabbi of each
community was the chief judge, and was assisted by several inferior
judges (dayyanim). For matters of importance there were courts of appeal
established in Ostrog and Lemberg, the former having jurisdiction over
Volhynia and the Ukraine, the latter over the rest of Jewish
Russo-Poland. For inter-kahal litigation, there was a supreme court, the
Wa'ad Arba' ha-Arazot (the Synod of the Four Countries), which held its
sessions during the Lublin fair in winter and the Yaroslav fair in
summer. In cases affecting Jews and Gentiles, a decision was given by
the _judex Judaeorum_, who held his office by official appointment of
the grand duke.
So far their system of self-government appears almost a prototype of our
own. The same is true of their municipal administration. The rabbi, who
had the deciding vote in case of a dead-lock, stood in the same relation
to them as the mayor holds to us, only that his term of office,
nominally limited to three years, was actually for life or during good
behavior. Yet the power vested in him was only delegated power. A number
of selectmen, or aldermen, guarded the rights of the community with the
utmost jealousy, and tolerated no innovation, unless previously
sanctioned by them. There were also several honorary offices, with a
one-year tenure, which none could fill who had not had experience in an
inferior position. The chief duties attached to these offices were to
appraise the amount of taxation, pay the salaries of the rabbi, his
dayyanim, and the teachers of the public schools, provide for the poor,
and, above all, intercede with the Government.[38]
Still more interesting and, for our purpose, more important were their
public and private institutions of learning. Jews have always been noted
for the solicitous care they exercise in the education of the young. The
Slavonic Jews surpassed their brethren of other countries in this
respect. At times they wrenched the tender bond of parental love in
their ardor for knowledge. With a republican form of government they
created an aristocracy, not of wealth or of blood, but of intellect. The
education of girls was, indeed, neglected. To be able to read her
prayers in Hebrew and to write Yiddish was all that was expected of a
mother in Israel. It was otherwise with the boys. Every Jew deemed
himself in duty bound to educate his son. "Learning is the best
merchandise"--_Torah iz die beste sehorah_--was the lesson inculcated
from cradle to manhood, the precept followed from manhood to old age.
All the lullabies transmitted to us from earliest times indicate the
pursuit of knowledge as the highest ambition cherished by mothers for
their sons:
Patsché, patsché, little tootsies,
We shall buy us little bootsies;
Little bootsies we shall buy,
To run to heder we shall try;
Torah we'll learn and all good ma'alot (qualities),
On our wedding eve we shall solve sha'alot (ritual problems).[39]
To have a scholarly son or son-in-law was the best passport to the
highest circles, a means of rising from the lowliest to the loftiest
station in life.
It is no wonder, then, that schools abounded in every community. At the
early age of four the child was usually sent to the heder (school;
literally, room), where he studied until he was ready for the yeshibah,
the higher "seat" of learning. The melammedim, teachers, were graded
according to their ability, and the school year consisted of two terms,
zemannim, from the first Sabbath after the Holy Days to Passover and
from after Passover to Rosh ha-Shanah. The boy's intellectual capacities
were steadily, if not systematically, cultivated, sometimes at the
expense of his bodily development. It was not unusual for a child of
seven or eight to handle a difficult problem in the Talmud, a precocity
characteristic to this day of the children hailing from Slavonic
countries. Their 'illuyim (prodigies) might furnish ample material for
more than one volume of _les enfants célèbres_.
Nor were the children of the poor left to grow up in ignorance. Learning
was free, to be had for the asking. More than this, stringent measures
were taken that no child be without instruction. Talmud Torahs were
founded even in the smallest kehillot (communities), and the students
were supplied, not only with books, but also with the necessaries of
life. Communal and individual benefactors furnished clothes, and every
member (ba'al ha-bayit) had to provide food and lodging for an indigent
pupil at least one day of each week. The "Freitisch" (free board) was an
inseparable adjunct to every school. Poor young men were not regarded as
"beggar students." They were looked upon as earning their living by
study, even as teachers by instructing. To pray for the dead or the
living in return for their support is a recent innovation, and mostly
among other than Slavonic Jews. It is a custom adopted from medieval
Christianity, and practiced in England by the poor student, who, in the
words of Chaucer,
Busily 'gan for the souls to pray
On them that gave him wherewith to scolay.
For a faithful and vivid description of the yeshibot we cannot do better
than transcribe the account given in the pages of the little pamphlet
_Yeven Mezulah_ in which Nathan Hannover, mentioned above, has left us a
reliable history of the Cossack uprisings and the Kulturgeschichte of
his own time.
I need bring no proof for the statement that nowhere was the
study of the Law so universal as in Russo-Poland. In every
community there was a well-paid dean (rosh yeshibah), who,
exempt from worry about a livelihood, devoted himself
exclusively to teaching and studying by day and by night. In
every kahal, many youths, maintained liberally, studied under
the guidance of the dean. In turn, they instructed the less
advanced, who were also supported by the community. A kahal of
fifty [families] had to provide for at least thirty such. They
boarded and lodged in the homes of their patrons, and frequently
received pocket-money in addition. Thus there was hardly a house
in which the Torah was not studied, either by the master of the
house, a son, a son-in-law, or a student stranger. They always
bore in mind the dictum of Rabba, "He who loves scholars will
have scholarly sons; he who welcomes scholars will have
scholarly sons-in-law; he who admires scholars will become
learned himself." No wonder, then, that every community swarmed
with scholars, that out of every fifty of its members at least
twenty were far advanced, and had the morenu (i.e. bachelor)
degree.
The dean was vested with absolute authority. He could punish an
offender, whether rich or poor. Everybody respected him, and he
often received gifts of money or valuables. In all religious
processions he came first. Then followed the students, then the
learned, and the rest of the congregation brought up the rear.
This veneration for the dean prompted many a youth to imitate
his example, and thus our country was rendered full of the
knowledge of the Law.
What became of the students when they were graduated? Let us turn once
more to Hannover's interesting narrative. The "fairs" of those days were
much more than opportunities for barter; they afforded favorable and
attractive occasions for other objects. Zaslav and Yaroslav during the
summer, Lemberg and Lublin in the winter, were "filled with hundreds of
deans and thousands of students," and one who had a marriageable
daughter had but to resort thither to have his worries allayed.
Therefore, "Jews and Jewesses attended these bazaars in magnificent
attire, and [each season] several hundred, sometimes as many as a
thousand, alliances were consummated."
That the rabbi, living in a strange land and recalling a glorious past,
should have indulged in a bit of exaggeration in his sorrowful
retrospect, is not more than natural; and that his picture on the whole
is true is proved by similar schools which existed in Russia till
recently. The descriptions of these institutions by Smolenskin as well
as writers of less repute are graphic and intensely interesting. They
constituted a unique world, in which the Jewish youth lived and moved
until he reached man's estate. In later years, when Russian Jewry became
infected, so to speak, with the Aufklärungs-bacilli, they became the
nurseries of the new learning. But in the earlier time, too, a spirit of
enlightenment pervaded them. The study of the Talmud fostered in them
was regarded both as a religious duty and as a means to an end, the
rabbinate. Even in the Middle Ages Aristotle was a favorite with the
older students, and Solomon Luria complained that in the prayer books of
many of them he had noticed the prayer of Aristotle, for which he blamed
the liberal views of Moses Isserles![40]
Another typically, though not exclusively, Slavonic Jewish institution
was the study-hall, or bet ha-midrash. As the synagogues gradually
became Schulen (schools), so, by a contrary process, the bet ha-midrash
assumed the function of a house of prayer. Its uniqueness it has
retained to this day. It was at once a library, a reading-room, and a
class-room; yet those who frequented it were bound by the rigorous laws
of none of the three. There were no restrictions as to when, or what, or
how one should study. It was a place in which originality was admired
and research encouraged. As at a Spartan feast, youth and age
commingled, men of all ages and diverse attainments exchanged views, and
all benefited by mutual contact.
Those whose position precluded devotion to study availed themselves at
least of the means for mutual improvement at their disposal. They
organized societies for the study of certain branches of Jewish lore,
and for the meetings of these societies the busiest spared time and the
poorest put aside his work. It was a people composed of scholars and
those who maintained scholars, and the scholars, in dress and
appearance, represented the aristocracy, an aristocracy of the
intellect.
Such was the pre-Haskalah period. From the meagre data at our disposal
we are justified in concluding, that, left undisturbed, the Slavonic
Jews would have evolved a civilization rivalling, if not surpassing,
that of the golden era of the Spanish Jews. But this was not to be.
Their onward march met a sudden and terrific check. Hetman Chmielnicki
at the head of his savage hordes of Russians and Tatars conquered the
Poles, and Jews and Catholics were subjected to the most inhuman
treatment. The descendants of those who, in 1090, had escaped the
Crusaders fell victims in 1648 to the more cruel Cossacks. About half a
million Jews, it is estimated, lost their lives in Chmielnicki's
horrible massacres. The few communities remaining were utterly
demoralized. The education of the young was neglected, both sacred and
secular branches of study were abandoned. And when the storm calmed
down, they found themselves deprived of the accumulations of centuries,
forced, like Noah after the deluge, but without his means, to start
again from the very beginning. Indeed, as Levinsohn remarks, the wonder
is that, despite the fiendish persecution they endured, these
unfortunates should have preserved a spark of love of knowledge. Yet a
little later it was to burst into flame again and bring light and warmth
to hearts crushed by "man's inhumanity to man."
(Notes, pp. 305-310.)