The Maccabaean

QUARTER of a century has passed since the death of Leo Pinsker, and thirty-five years since the appearance of his brochure Auto-Emancipation; but the spiritual and moral revolution which was effected in recent times in the life of the thinking and feeling Jew of the Diaspora has yet to be described in more beautiful words, in more concise language, in more forceful style, and with a deeper and more delicate sentiment than it was by this physician, this Russian Jew—a designation which was dear to the heart of this eminent man.

When we pronounce the name of Leo Pinsker it calls to our minds, by an inevitable association of ideas, the name of Moses Hess, his predecessor, and that of Theodor Herzl, who came after him. It is true that Hess, Pinsker, and Herzl differed widely as regards the course of their lives, their characteristics, their opinions, and their views of the world and of the Jewish people; but yet they resembled each other in one respect, they had one important trait in common, All three were “peni- tents,” all three came back to the Jewish people from another world, from a distant world, a world alien to the soul of our nation. In the spirit of the three of them a mighty revolution took place after they had dedicated the greater part of their life and work to ideals which did not spring from national consciousness; and all of them, even when they had become nationalists and fighters in the ranks which were to deliver our souls and bodies from cruel subjection, even when they had broken the “tablets of the law” of custom and usage, remained on the pin- nacle of the culture of their day, their eyes probing the distance, penetrating the depths, and fixed on far horizons.

ee hag Be RE יאמ רשש םש - י'ע ", ב שו MA ה ",2" ל Mk It is also to be remarked that all three had known neither want nor poverty in their own lives, and that all three were held in high esteem by their Gentile neighbors. It was not through personal experience that the misery of the Jewish people was brought home to them, that they discerned its abasement in the Galuth. Their theory of nationalism was not the result of need or oppression, nor did it spring from pusillanimity ; it was, on the contrary, brought to life by the very abundance of their inner strength which had matured and ripened. They were all three spiritual heroes—each one in a different way and degree—whose eyes had been suddenly opened to per- feive the signs of the times, whose ears had suddenly ransmitted to their hearts the cry of generations. And so they awoke to a new and fuller life. In all three of them we may recognize manifestations heretofore unknown of our national Shechinah,

The history of the National revival of Israel, and the history of the revolution which took place in our spiritual existence are inseparably bound up with the history of Hess, Pinsker, and Herzl.

But the object of this article is not to make comparisons between these great thinkers: my words are to be devoted to Pinsker alone.

And the story of Pinsker can be told briefly, for it does not abound in important occurrences, nor is it interwoven with outward events. The path which he trod may be traced in a straight line until it diverged to one side, forming an acute angle, and extended in a different direction.

Leo Pinsker was born in a small Galician town on December 24, 1821. (He died in the same month, in the

year 1891.) His father, Simhah Pinsker, a native of Galicia, was one of the brilliant scholars of Israel; his mother belonged to a distinguished Russian family. And since all those who have made biographical sketches of Leo Pinsker in alien tongues (for the story of his life has not yet been told in Hebrew) have passed in complete silence over the literary achievements of his father, known in Hebrew literature as Rashaf, I think it my duty to recall them to mv Jewish readers.

Fe eS הרי ae דתי קרש GPT SEE ee mae ושי The following works of Simhah Pinsker may be found in print at the present day: (He left various mss. behind him, of which only one, and that in part, was published after hic death (

I. An Anthology of Olden Times. Regarding the history of the religion and literature of the Karaites, derived from Hebrew and Arabic mss. Published in Vienna, 1863.

248 NR RR AR TE CRSA NA SRR CERIN 24599, 2 SER SLOSALNLE 24h CO +6 uu" * II. Introduction to Assyrian or Babylonian vocalization. Derived from mss. in the Odessa Museum of the Society for Historical and Archeological Research, and also from tablets of vowel-signs and facsimilia. Followed by a treatise on the origin of numbers by the scholar Rabbi Abraham Ben Ezra. (This book was first published in 1863, the mss. having been revised and annotated by Simhah Pinsker. The historian Graetz expressed himself in the following terms about the above-mentioned works of Rashaf: “Were it not for the books of Pinsker, we should have been unable to make head or tail of the history of the Karaites or the history of Assyrian vocal- ization. We should be thankful to him for having laid the cornerstone of scientific research in these branches.” )

III. Examples of Verb Forms and Conjugations.* Of the use of forms and conjugations in the verbs of the Hebrew language, by the eminent grammarian and scholar, Simhah Pinsker. With a preface by Dr. S. Rubin. Published in Vienna, 1887.

I shall quote the opinions concerning the merit of Simhah Pinsker expressed by certain learned Jews of his generation. The poet and writer A. B. Gottlober dedicated a poem to Pinsker (which afterward appeared in a complete edition of his works) in which he apostrophized him as “unique in his generation.” The Talmudic scholar Joshua Heshel Schur, known in Hebrew literature as Yahash, made Pinsker the subject of a long and comprehensive article in He-Haluts. (The Vanguard) dealing with the “Anthology of Olden Times.” He expressed himself in the highest terms about the author and his scientific attainments, although he did not hesitate to criticise him unsparingly and without due reverence.

All the German journals of that time which concerned themselves with Judaica contained important articles on the two first-named books of Rashaf.

Simhah Pinsker was the friend of Dr. A. Jellenik of Vienna, the scholar and philologist. They exchanged letters at intervals on scientific matters related to the history of Assyrian vocalization. Pinsker corresponded with various scholars of his time in other countries.

Rashaf, the father of Leo Pinsker, was born in Tar-

*In the preface to his book Dr. S. Rubin says: “The book under discussion is small in size but great, in quality. It is the work of an able writer and thinker. Its object is to instruct those who make use of the Hebrew language on the significance of verb forms and conjugations. The author illustrated each form and conjugation with some saying on morals or the conduct of life, in order to combine the useful and the agreeable for the ‘student.”