Naphtali Herz Shulman (; died ) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

author, an early Maskilic author in Eastern Europe. He was born in Stary Bykhov, about 40 miles south of Shkov. He was son of a rabbi and developed an interest in Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed, which was "the first step in intellectual emancipation of East European

maskilim The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and th ...

from the fetters of tradition." In the 1790s during a stay in Vilna, Schulman challenged the traditional taboo on public study of the Guide. He presented lectures on the subject which aroused the indignation by some communal leaders, who protested to Vilna Gaon and urged him to ban the classes. The Gaon refused. The controversy foreshadowed future confrontations. Inspired by the Berlin Haskalah, Schulman also focused on Hebrew grammar and philology which were neglected by East European rabbis. Vilna Gaon became aware of his studies and supposedly tested his grammatical skills. In these ways, Schulman challenged Jewish literary culture in Eastern Europe . In 1797, Schulman settled in Shkov where he made his literary debut as an editor of a new edition of ''Mikveh yisra'el'' (The hope of Israel), a booklet by R. Manasseh Ben Israel of Amsterdam on the discovery of the ten lost tribes of Israel among the American Indians. Schulman recognized that the book could serve as a useful introduction to modern geography, thus introducing East European Jews to the New World and broadening the intellectual horizons.The book was a literary sensation for Jews in Eastern Europe. Schulman's intent was to use the book to argue for the legitimacy of knowledge originating from outside rabbinic tradition.

Biography

Shulman was born in Bikhov,

Mogilev Governorate Mogilev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. The governorate bordered the Vitebsk Governorate to the north, the Smolensk Governorate to the east, the Chernigov Gover ...

, and later settled in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, where he earned a livelihood from giving private lessons in wealthy homes. He edited

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's ''Zekher rav'' (Shklov, 1797), with an index of the words to be found in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, a translation of them into

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, and grammatical notes. He also composed and published ''Shir ve-hallel'' (in Hebrew, Russian, and German; Vilna, 1806), a hymn sung by the Jews of Vilna on the birthday of the grand duchess Elizabeth Alexandrowna, daughter of

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 495 to 454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas, ruler of the Seleucid Empire 150-145 BC * Pope Alex ...

and Elizabeth Alexeievna.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shulman, Naphtali Herz People from Bykhaw district People from Bykhovsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews 19th-century Jews from the Russian Empire Hebrew-language writers Hebrew-language poets Jewish writers from the Russian Empire