The energy and acquisitiveness that made the Jews of
happier and more prosperous lands prominent in every sphere of practical
life, were directed toward the realm of thought, and the merciless
severity with which the Government excluded them from the enjoyment of
things material only increased their ardor for things spiritual and
intellectual.
In its wide sense Haskalah denotes enlightenment. Those who strove to
enlighten their benighted coreligionists or disseminate European culture
among them, were called Maskilim. A careful perusal of this work will
reveal the exact ideals these terms embody. For Haskalah was not only
progressive, it was also aggressive, militant, sometimes destructive.
From the days of Mordecai Guenzburg to the time of Asher Ginzberg (Ahad
Ha-'Am), it changed its tendencies and motives more than once.
Levinsohn, "the father of the Maskilim," was satisfied with removing the
ban from secular learning; Gordon wished to see his brethren "Jews at
home and men abroad"; Smolenskin dreamed of the rehabilitation of Jews
in Palestine; and Ahad Ha-'Am hopes for the spiritual regeneration of
his beloved people.
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