[36]
Satanov was greatly in favor of expanding the Hebrew language, but the
first to borrow expressions from the Talmud literature or coin words of
his own was Mendel Levin, also of Satanov, Podolia (1741-1819), the
friend of Mendelssohn while in Berlin, the inspirer of Perl and Krochmal
while in Brody, the companion of Zeitlin and Schick while in Mohilev.
The Meassefim, the name generally applied to all who participated in the
publication of the Meassef, were shocked by what they regarded a
profanation of the sacred tongue. Their idea was that Hebrew was to be
utilized as a means of introducing Western civilization. Afterwards it
was to be relegated once more to the holy Ark. To Levin Hebrew had a far
higher significance. Not only should Western civilization be introduced
into Jewry through its means, but Hebrew itself should be so perfected
as to take a place by the side of the more modern and cultivated
languages. It should find adequate expressions for the new thoughts and
ideas which the new learning would introduce into it directly or
indirectly. The medieval translations from the Arabic should be
retranslated into the new Hebrew, he held, and he furnished an example
by recasting the first part of Maimuni's _Moreh Nebukim_.
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