an
Jewry. In lonesome quietude, carefully guarding his designs from the
outside world which was exclusively hasidic, he worked at his book
_Te'udah, be-Israel_ ("Instruction in Israel"), which after many
difficulties he managed to publish in Vilna in 1828. In this book our
author endeavored, without trespassing the boundaries of orthodox
religious tradition, to demonstrate the following elementary truths by
citing examples from Jewish history and sayings of great Jewish
authorities:

[Footnote 1: A Hebrew term meaning "enlightenment." It is a translation
of the German _Aufklaerung_, and was first applied to the endeavors made
in the time of Moses Mendelssohn (died 1886) to introduce European
culture among the Jews of the ghetto.]

[Footnote 2: Died 1839. He became famous through his anti-hasidic parody
_Megalle Temirin_, "Revealing Hidden Things," written in the form of
letters in imitation of the hasidic style. Peri's book has been
frequently compared with the medieval _Epistolae obscurorum vivorum_,
which are ascribed to Ulrich von Hutten (d. 1523). See P. 127.]

[Footnote 3: Died 1840. Famous as the author of _More Nebuke ha-Zeman_,
"Guide of the Perplexed of (Our) Time," a profound treatise, dealing
with Jewish theological and historical problems.]

1. The Jew is obliged to study the Bible as well as Hebrew grammar
and to interpret the biblical text in accordance with the plain
grammatical sense.

2. The Jewish religion does not condemn the knowledge of foreign
languages and literatures, especially of the language of the
country, such knowledge being required both in the personal interest
of the individual Jew and in the common interest of the Jewish
people.

3. The study of secular sciences is not attended by any danger for
Judaism, men of the type of Maimonides having remained loyal Jews,
in spite of their extensive general culture.

4. It is necessary from the economic point of view to strengthen
productive labor, such as handicrafts and agriculture, at the
expense of commerce and brokerage, also to discourage early
marriages between persons who are unprovided for and have no
definite occupation.

These commonplaces sounded to that generation like epoch-making
revelations. They were condemned as rank heresies by the all-powerful
obscurantists and hailed as a gospel of the approaching renaissance by
that handful of progressives who dreamt of a new Jewish life and, cowed