Chapter I
The Pre-Haskalah Period
?-1648
2
LTI, p. 33, n. 2; LBJ, ii. 94, n. 2.
3
See je, s.v. Azov, and Kertch. See also Fishberg, The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment, New York, 1911, pp. 150, 192-194.
4
See Judah Halevi’s Kuzari, Introduction.
5
Minor, Rukovodstvo, Moscow, 1881, iv; Ha-Pardes, St. Petersburg, 1902, p. 155.
6
HUH, pp. 31-32, 69-76.
7
Yevrey Minister, Voskhod, 1885, v. 105 f.
8
JE, i. 112, 119, 223; viii. 652.
9
The synagogue in Brest-Litovsk, which Saul Wahl built in memory of his wife Deborah, was demolished in 1836. WMG, p. 84.
10
HUH, pp. 77-134.
11
JE, x. 569.
12
The story of Zacharias de Guizolfi deserves to be given at greater length. He was a prince and ruler of the Taman peninsula near the Black Sea (1419). After he had been unsuccessful in a war against the Turks, Czar Ivan III sent him a message sealed with the gold seal (March 14, 1484) as follows:
“By the grace of God, the great ruler of the Russian land, the Grand Duke Ivan Vassilyevich, czar of all the Russias, to Skariya the Hebrew.
“You have written to us through Gabriel Patrov, our guest, that you desire to come to us. It is our wish that you do so. When you are with us, we shall give you evidence of our favorable disposition toward you. Should you wish to serve us, we will confer honors upon you. But should you not wish to remain with us, and prefer to return to your country, you shall be free to go.”
For some reason or other, Zacharias never accomplished his contemplated trip, notwithstanding the many inducements repeatedly offered by the czar during a period of eighteen years. Perhaps it was because of the disturbances which rendered transportation dangerous; possibly because he preferred to serve the khan rather than the czar, for we find him, in 1500, a resident of Circassia. See JE, vi. 107-108; vi. 12.
19
Catalogue de Rossi, in. 200; Ha-Maggid, 1860, pp. 299-302; HUH, pp. 33, 40.
20
Autobiography, p. 39.
21
LBJ, ii. 95, n.; Ha-‘Ibri, New York, viii., no. 33; Lehem ha-Panim, Hil. Nedarim, no. 228.
24
Margoliuth, Hibbure Likkutim, Venice, 1715, Introduction.
25
Horowitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1883, pp. 30-35; FKN, pp. 73-91; Emden, op. cit, p. 125; and biographies.
26
LTI, ii. 81, n.; Hannover, Yeven Mezulah, Warsaw, 1872, p. 7b.
27
Zunz, Literaturgeschichte, pp. 433-435, 442; Buber, Anshe Shem, Cracow, 1895, pp. 307-309; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 396; JE, xi. 217; Bikkure ha-‘Ittim, 1830, p. 43. Jacob of Gnesen, I suspect, must have lived in Russia.
28
Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, pp. 235, 240; Benjacob, op. cit, p. 396.
29
JE, xii. 265-266: “Enfin les incrédules les plus déterminés n’out presque rien allégué qui ne soit dans le Rampart de la Foi du Rabbin Isaac.”
35
JE, vii. 454.
36
JE, i. 372; iv. 140; Ha-Yekeb, 1894, p. 68.
37
Bersohn, Tobiasz Cohn, Warsaw, 1872.
38
Cf. FKN, pp. 38-42 (Vilna constitution); Hannover, op. cit., p. 23a; Ha-Modia’ la-Hadashim, II. i. II, and JE, s.v. Council, Kahal, Lithuania, etc.
Sleep, my child, my little darling, sleep, I sing to thee;
Silently the soft white moonbeams fall on thee and me.
I will tell thee fairy stories in my lullaby;
Sleep, my child, my pretty darling, sleep, I sing to thee.
Lo, I see the day approaching when the warriors meet;
Then wilt thou grasp thy rifle and mount thy charger fleet.
I will broider in thy saddle colors fair to see,
Sleep, my child, my little darling, sleep, I sing to thee.
Then my Cossack boy, my hero brave and proud and gay,
Waves one farewell to his mother and rides far away.
Oh, what sorrow, pain and anguish then my soul shall fill,
As I pray by day and night that God will keep thee still!
Thou shalt take a saint’s pure image to the battlefield,
Look upon it when thou prayest, may it be thy shield.
And when battles fierce are raging, give one thought to me;
Sleep, my darling, calmly, sweetly, sleep, I sing to thee.
—Westminster Gazette.
See Güdemann, Quellen zur Geschichte des Unterrichts, Berlin, 1891, pp. 285-286; Ha-Boker Or, i. 315 (on Dubno); Ha-Meliz, 1894, no. 254 (on Mohilev); Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vorträge, pp. 122g and 470a; cf. Weiss, Zikronotaï, Warsaw, 1895, pp. 53-83.
Notes
1 Mention might, indeed, be made of Dr. Zunz’s pioneer work in his Aelteste Nachrichten über Juden und jüdische Gelehrte in Polen, Slavonien, Russland (Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1875, iii. 82-87), and Firkovich, who, in his Abne Zikkaron (Vilna, 1872), threw much light on the history of the Crimean Jews. The best contributions to the subject, however, are those of Harkavy, Russ i Russkiye v Sred. Yevr. Lit. (Voskhod, 1881), and Malishevsky, Yevreyi v Yuzhnoy Rossii i Kieve, v. x-xii. Vyekakh, St. Petersburg, 1878.
13 E.g. Barakha, the hero (1601), Ilyash Karaimovich, the starosta (1637), and Motve Borokhovich, the colonel (1647). See JE, ii. 128; iv. 283; ix. 40.
14 See Czacki, Rosprava o Zhydakh, Vilna, 1807, p. 93; Buchholtz, Geschichte der Juden in Riga, Riga, 1899, p. 3; Mann, Sheerit Yisraël, Vilna, 1818, ch. 30; Virga, Shebet Yehudah, Hanover, 1856, pp. 147 f., and Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, ix. 480.
15 The Subbotniki, Dukhobortzi, and the other dissenting, but non-Jewish, sects are not referred to here, though they may have received their inspiration from Jews or through Judaism.
16 Voskhod, 1881, i. 73-75; JE, vii. 487-488; ix. 570; Bramson, K Istorii Pervonachalnaho Obrazovaniya Russkikh Yevreyev, St. Petersburg, 1896, pp. 4-6.
17 Sternberg, Die Proselyten im xvi. und xvii. Jahrhundert, AZJ, 1863, pp. 67-68 (ibid, in L’univers Israelite, 1863, pp. 272 f.); Mandelkern, Dibre Yeme Russyah, Warsaw, 1875, pp. 231 f.; Yevreyskaya Enziklopedya, s.v. Zhidostvuyushchikh; Bedrzhidsky in Zhurnal Ministerstva Narodnaho Prosvyeshchanya, St. Petersburg, 1912, pp. 106-122; Jewish Ledger, Jan., 1902, p. 3; Emden, Megillat Sefer, ed. Cohan, p. 207, Warsaw, 1896. On Count Pototzki, see Ger Zedek, in Yevreyskaya Biblyotyeka, St. Petersburg, 1892; Gershuni, Sketches of Jewish Life and History, New York, 1873, pp. 158-224 (also Introduction), and S.L. Gordon’s ballad in Ha-Shiloah (Ger Zedek), i. 431. On Pototzki and Zaremba, see Gere Zedek (Anon.), Johannisberg, 1862. On modern Russian Gerim, see Die Welt, July 5, 1907, pp. 16-17 (Palestine), B’nai B’rith News, May 13, 1913 (United States), and Leroy-Beaulieu, Israel among the Nations, Engl. transl., New York, 1900, p. 110, n. 1; Yiddishes Tageblatt, July 16 and 23, 1913, Gerim in Russland, and Vieder vegen Gerim; JE, i. 336; vii. 369-370, 489.
18 HUH, pp. 3, 21 f.; Minor, op. cit., p. 4; Yevreyskiya Nadpisi, St. Petersburg, 1884, p. 217; Sefer ha-Yashar, no. 522; Eben ha-‘Ezer, no. 118. On [Hebrew: Bn’n Hrogi] see Monatsschrift, xxii. 514.
22 Nishmat Hayyim, Lemberg, 1858, p. 83a; Azulaï, Shem ha-Gedolim, s.v. Horowitz; FKN, p. 74, and Ha-Maggid, in. 159. Cf. Sheerit Yisraël, ch. 32, and Edelman, Gedulat Shaül, London, 1854. Reifman, in Ha-Maggid, claims that to Luria belongs the honor of being the first-known Jewish author.
23 See Zikronot, ed. Cohan, pp. 62-66, 90, 313, 336, 380, passim; Schechter, Studies in Judaism, Philadelphia, 1908, ii. 132.
30 Nusbaum, Historya Zhidóv, i. p. 180; Edelman, op. cit, attributes the coming of Saul Wahl to this cause.
31 The Elim (Amsterdam, 1629), if not, as the Karaites maintain, actually the work of Zerah Troki, was surely the result of the problems submitted by him to Delmedigo.
32 JE, iv. 504; vii. 264; xii. 266; Ha-Eshkol, iii. and iv. (R.M. Jarre); LTI, ii. 80; Benjacob, op. cit, no. 1428.
33 Zunz, Ritus, Berlin, 1859, p. 73, and Gottesdienstliche Vorträge, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1892, p. 452, n.a.; Wessely, Dibre Shalom we-Emet, ii. 7; Benjacob, op. cit., no. 1187.
34 Voskhod, 1893, i. 79; New Era Illustrated Magazine, v.; FNI, p. 28 f.; JE, i. 113; ii. 22, 622; xii. 265.
39 See GMC, pp. 59 f., and compare with this Lermontoff’s Cossack Cradle-Song, which may be taken as a type:
40 Cf. Güdemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens, iii. 94, n., and see Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, Introduction, and Meassef, St. Petersburg, 1902, p. 205, n.