Those who wished to perfect themselves in any of the
sciences had to leave home and all and go to a foreign land, and had to
study, as they were bidden to study the Talmud, "lishmah," that is, for
its own sake. This is the distinguishing feature between the German and
Slavonic Maskilim during the eighteenth century. The cry of the former
was, "Become learned, lest the nations say we are not civilized and deny
us the wealth, respect, and especially the equality we covet!" The
latter were humbly seeking after the truth, either because they could
better elucidate the Talmud, or because, as they held, it was _their_
truth, of which the nations had deprived them during their long
exile.[43] They were unlike their German brethren in another respect.
Almost all of them were "self-made men," autodidacts in the truest
sense. Lacking the advantages of secular schools, they culled their
first information from scanty, antiquated Hebrew translations. Maimon
learned the Roman alphabet from the transliteration of the titles on the
fly-leaves of some Talmudic tracts; Doctor Behr, from Wolff's
_Mathematics_. But no sooner was the impetus given than it was followed
by an insatiable craving for more and more of the intellectual manna,
for a wider and wider horizon.
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