But all at once my father lost his fortune, and I was forced to go
somewhere to provide for myself. So I became a melammed in Berlin." This
piece of autobiography in the preface to a Talmudic treatise by Reuben
of Zamoscz might have been written by many others, too. But there were
also the goodly number led thither by thirst for knowledge, whose
remarkable abilities attracted the admiration of Jew and Gentile alike.
Wessely the poet and Linda the mathematician more than once expressed
surprise at the amount of learning many of the poor immigrants were
found to possess.[22]

Among these immigrants were two who may justly be regarded as the
conducting medium through which the Haskalah currents were transmitted
from Germany to Russo-Poland: Solomon Dubno, the indefatigable laborer
in the province of Jewish science, and Solomon Maimon, the brilliant but
unfortunate philosopher, both of them teachers in the house of
Mendelssohn.

Solomon Dubno (1738-1813) was all his life a bee in search of flowers,
to turn their sweetness into honey. Having exhausted the knowledge of
his Volhynian instructors, he went to Galicia, where he became
proficient in Hebrew grammar and Biblical exegesis. Thence, attracted by
its rich collection of books, he left for Amsterdam, where he spent five
years in study and research. Finally he settled in Berlin, and earned a
livelihood by teaching among others the children of Mendelssohn. The
gentle disposition and profound learning of the Polish emigrant made a
favorable impression on the Berlin sage, who invited him to participate
in his translation of the Bible, which revolutionized the Judaism of the
nineteenth century more than the Septuagint that of the first century.
The result was the _Biur_ (commentary), which he, together with his
countryman, Aaron Yaroslav, also a teacher, wrote on several books of