Everything about Haskalah totally explained
Haskalah (
Hebrew: השכלה; "enlightenment," "education" from
sekhel "
intellect", "mind" ), the
Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among
European
Jews in the late
18th century that advocated adopting
enlightenment values, pressing for better
integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies,
Hebrew, and
Jewish history. Haskalah in this sense marked the beginning of the wider engagement of European Jews with the secular world, ultimately resulting in the first
Jewish political movements and the struggle for
Jewish emancipation. The division of
Ashkenazi Jewry into religious movements or
denominations, especially in North America and
anglophone countries, began historically as a reaction to Haskalah.
In a more restricted sense,
haskalah can also denote the study of
Biblical Hebrew and of the poetical, scientific, and critical parts of Hebrew literature. The term is sometimes used to describe modern critical study of Jewish religious books, such as the
Mishnah and
Talmud, when used to differentiate these modern modes of study from the methods used by
Orthodox Jews.
The movement
As long as the Jews lived in
segregated communities, and as long as all avenues of social intercourse with their
gentile neighbors were closed to them, the
rabbi was the most influential member of the Jewish community. In addition to being a religious scholar and "clergy", a rabbi also acted as a civil
judge in all cases in which both parties were Jews. Rabbis sometimes had other important administrative powers, together with the community elders. The rabbinate was the highest aim of many Jewish boys, and the study of the Talmud was the means of obtaining that coveted position, or one of many other important communal distinctions. Haskalah followers advocated "coming out of
ghetto," not just physically but also mentally and spiritually in order to assimilate amongst gentile nations.
The example of
Moses Mendelssohn (
1729–
86), a
Prussian Jew, served to lead this movement, which was also shaped by
Aaron Halle-Wolfssohn (
1754–
1835) and
Joseph Perl (
1773–
1839). Mendelssohn's extraordinary success as a popular philosopher and
man of letters revealed hitherto unsuspected possibilities of integration and acceptance of Jews among non-Jews. Mendelssohn also provided methods for Jews to enter the general society of
Germany. A good knowledge of the German language was necessary to secure entrance into cultured German circles, and an excellent means of acquiring it was provided by Mendelssohn in his German translation of the
Torah. This work became a bridge over which ambitious young Jews could pass to the great world of secular knowledge. The
Biur, or grammatical commentary, prepared under Mendelssohn's supervision, was designed to counteract the influence of traditional rabbinical methods of
exegesis. Together with the translation, it became, as it were, the primer of haskalah. Haskalah didn't stay restricted to Germany, however, and the movement quickly spread throughout Europe (
Map of the spread of Haskalah
). Adherents of the haskalah movement were called
maskilim (משכילים).
Language played a key role in the haskalah movement, as Mendelssohn and others called for a revival in Hebrew and a reduction in the use of
Yiddish. The result was an outpouring of new, secular literature, as well as critical studies of
religious texts.
Julius Fürst along with other German-Jewish scholars compiled Hebrew and Aramaic dictionaries and grammars. Jews also began to study and communicate in the languages of the countries in which they settled, providing another gateway for integration.
Effects
Even as it eased integration, haskalah also resulted in a revival of
Jewish secular identity, with an emphasis on
Jewish history and Jewish identity. The result was engagement of the Jews in a variety of ways with the countries in which they lived, including the struggle for
Jewish emancipation and the birth of new
Jewish political movements, and ultimately the development of
Zionism in the face of the persecutions of the late
1800s.
One facet of haskalah was a widespread cultural adaptation, as those Jews who participated in the enlightenment began in varying degrees to participate in the cultural practices of the surrounding gentile population. Connected with this was the birth of the
Reform movement, whose founders such as
Israel Jacobson and
Leopold Zunz rejected the continuing observance of those aspects of Jewish law which they classified as ritual, as opposed to moral or ethical. Even within orthodoxy the Haskalah was felt through the appearance of the
Mussar Movement in Lithuania and
Torah im Derech Eretz in Germany. Enlightened Jews sided with gentile governments in plans to increase secular education amongst the Jewish masses, bringing them into acute conflict with the orthodox who believed this threatened Jewish life.
Further Information
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