Naphtali Maskileison (; 20 February 1829,

Radashkovichy Radashkovichy ( be, Радашко́вічы, russian: Радошкóвичи, pl, Radoszkowicze, lt, Radaškonys) - is a town in the Maladzyechna District of Minsk Region, Belarus. A watershed of the Vileyka-Minsk water system is located in t ...

– 19 November 1897,

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

) was an

Imperial Russian The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

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

author and book-dealer.

Biography

Naphtali Maskileison was born at Radashkovichy, near Minsk. His father, Hebrew scholar

Abraham Maskileison Abraham ben Judah Leib (Löb) Maskileison (Hebrew: אברהם משכיל לאיתן); (b.1788– d.1848) was a Jewish scholar, rabbi and author active in Russia during the first half of the 19th century. Rabbi Maskileison was a great-grandson of a ...

, instructed him in

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. Study of the poetical works of

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ( he, משה חיים לוצאטו, also ''Moses Chaim'', ''Moses Hayyim'', also ''Luzzato'') (1707 – 16 May 1746 (26 ''Iyar'' 5506)), also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMCHaL (or RaMHaL, ), was a prominent Itali ...

and Naphtali Wessely awakened Maskileison's interest in contemporary Hebrew literature, then regarded with disfavor by the Orthodox circles in which he grew up. His first poetical production was the

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

''Esther'', which was praised by the poet Avraham Dov Ber Lebensohn. During a period of forty years, he published poems and prose articles in various Hebrew periodicals, as well as ''Miktabim le-lammed,'' a collection of eighty-eight letters of varied content (Vilna, 1870). One of Maskileison's most valuable undertakings was his revised edition of

Jehiel Heilprin Jehiel ben Solomon Heilprin ( he, יחיאל היילפרין; c. 1660 – c. 1746) was a Lithuanian rabbi, kabalist, and chronicler. Biography He was a descendant of Solomon Luria, and traced his genealogy back through Rashi to the tanna Johana ...

's ''Seder ha-dorot'' (Warsaw, 1878–1882). He left many works in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...

References

1829 births 1897 deaths People from Vileysky Uyezd People from Minsky Uyezd Jewish dramatists and playwrights Hebrew-language writers Hebrew-language poets Jewish writers from the Russian Empire {{Russia-writer-stub