ch in all that makes for holiness and
right living! The old garment needs no new patches. It still fits and
will fit "the eternal people" till time is no more. Since the reform
movement in Germany went back to the time of Mendelssohn, Smolenskin
hurled the missiles of his criticism against the Berlin sage, forgetting
that for more than half a century his example and encouragement had
served to awaken a love of knowledge in the hearts of his countrymen.
But he saw that in the home of Haskalah, the _Biur_, and the Meassefim,
apostasy increased, Hebrew was almost forgotten, and Judaism was
declining, and he blamed the pellucid water at the source of the stream
for the muddy pool at its mouth. Mendelssohn, however, lacked no
defenders among his Russo-Jewish coreligionists, and their sentiments
were voiced by Abraham Baer Gottlober in an opposition periodical, The
Light of Day (Ha-Boker Or, Lublin, 1876). "Why," exclaimed the editor,
"were it not for him and his reforms ... were it not for that grand and
noble personality ... neither you nor I should have been what we are!"
It was only the sad sincerity of Smolenskin that mitigated the errors he
had committed in regard to the history of his people and the theology of
its religion.

But the militant editor of Ha-Shahan, who wielded his pen like a
halberd, to deal out blows to those of whose views he disapproved,
became as tender as a father when he set out to write about the people.
His love for the masses whom he knew so well was almost boundless.
Underlying their superstitions, crudities, and absurdities is the
"prophetic consciousness," of which they have never been entirely
divested. The heder is indeed far from what a school should be, and the
yeshibah is hardly to be tolerated in a civilized community; yet what
spiritual feasts, what noble endeavors, and what unselfish devotion are
witnessed within their dingy walls! Jewish observances are sometimes
cumbersome and sometimes incompatible with modern life, but what beauty
of holiness, what irresistible influences emanate and radiate from most
of them! Under an uninviting exterior and beneath the accumulated drift
of countless generations he discerned the precious jewel of
self-sacrifice for an ideal. It was this sympathy and broad-mindedness,
expressed in his _Ha-Toeh_, his _Simhat Hanef_, _Keburat Hamor_, _Gemul
Yesharim_, and _Ha-Yerushah_ that will ever endear him to the Hebrew
reader.

Such, in brief, was the life o