The 18th century in Western Europe was a time of great change for the Jewish communities residing within – the emancipation, great scientific discoveries, Haskalah and its accompanying body of literature revolutionized the way Jews thought and what they believed.
A volume I obtained this week, published in Berlin in 1789, is one such publication that was a key piece in the advancement of the Haskalah in Western Europe and beyond. Titled Reshit Limmudim, it was authored by Baruch Lindau (1759-1849), a Jewish mathematician, science writer, and translator. A contributor to Moses Mendelssohn’s Biur, Reshit Limmudim is his most famous work, being a Hebrew textbook for the sciences, with chapters on astronomy, physics, botany, human anatomy, biology, geography, physics, chemistry, and mechanics.
Based in a large part on such works in German that were popular at the time, the author was tasked with describing things in Hebrew that were yet to be written about in the language. He thus invented many new Hebrew words for animals and scientific terms, some of these words surviving until today, having been incorporated into Modern Hebrew. In lieu of approbations from rabbis, which was the norm in Hebrew books of the day, Lindau obtained approbations from leading Jewish doctors of the day, Marcus Élieser Bloch and Markus Herz.
Reshit Limmudim was the first Hebrew language publication to note the discovery of the planet Uranus, discovered only a few years prior in 1781 by Sir William Herschel. His geographical descriptions brought up to date the changing borders resulting from the constant wars in 18th century Europe, as well as the founding of new settlements in the new world. Between his descriptions of various countries and peoples of the world. Brazilian Indians are among those given a brief description. This book served as a great aid to European Jews in learning about the geography of the world, including of the Americas.
Reshit Limmudim‘s popularity was such that even the traditional Jews in Europe found it of use, to the extent that portions of the book were incorporated in to the classic Sefer Haberit of R. Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz as well as to Amud Hashachar by R. Shimon Oppenheim. In 1856, Solomon Judah Löb HaKohen Rapoport (known by an acronym “Shir“) complained that it was a shame that a more recent book doesn’t exist, and that they are still relying on the outdated Reshit Limmudim for information.
