ike
Fuenn, 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 Baer Levinsohn and Mordecai Aaron
Guenzburg.[33]

Isaac Baer 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 l