was well posted in its literature, history, and politics. The Pinczovs,
descendants of Rabbi Polack, connected with the most eminent rabbinical
families, and themselves famous for piety and erudition, produced many
works on mathematics and philosophy. Mendelssohn's translation of the
Pentateuch was at first hailed with joy, and was recommended by the most
zealous rabbis. Doctor Hurwitz of Vilna did not hesitate to dedicate his
_'Ammude Bet Yehudah_ to Wessely, who was more popular in Russo-Poland
than in Germany. The whole edition of his _Yen Lebanon_, which fell flat
in the latter country, though offered gratis, was sold when introduced
into the former.[41] Joseph Pesseles' correspondence concerning Dubno,
with David Friedländer, the disciple of Mendelssohn (1773), proves the
high esteem in which the liberal-minded savants of Berlin were held in
Russia. The rabbis of Brest, Slutsk, and Lublin gave laudatory
recommendations to Judah Löb Margolioth's popular works of natural
science, which form a little encyclopedia by themselves. Margolioth was
the grandson of Mordecai Jaffe, himself rabbi successively at Busnov,
Szebrszyn, Polotsk, Lesla, and Frankfort-on-the-Oder (d. 1811). The
writings of Baruch Schick of Shklov, referred to above, were accorded
the same welcome. His translation of Euclid and his treatises on
trigonometry, astronomy (_'Ammude ha-Shamayim_), and anatomy (_Tiferet
Adam_) won the admiration of rabbis as well as laymen. Epitaphs of the
day contain the statement that the deceased was not only "at home in all
the chambers of the Torah," but also in "philosophy and the seven
sciences." And this, exaggerated though it may be, must be seen to
contain a kernel of the truth, when we recall that among Maimon's
intimate friends was the rabbi of Kletzk, Lithuania; that in the humble
dwelling of his father there were works on historical, astronomical, and
philosophical subjects; that the chief rabbi of a neighboring town,
Rabbi Samson of Slonim, who, according to Fünn, "had in his youth lived
for a while in Germany, learned the German language there, and made