After six years of pleading, he returned to his native land with a
signed statement addressed to the Polish king and nobles, which declared
the accusation to be utterly false. Another uncle of his had performed a
similar task in 1749. True scion of a noble family, Levinsohn followed
in their wake, and his effort was declared to be a "sharp sword forged
by a master, to fight for our honor."
Everything was against Levinsohn when he started on his third great
work, _The House of Judah_ (_Bet Yehudah_). He found himself poor, sick,
and alone, and deprived of his fine library. In those days, and for a
long time before and afterwards, Hebrew authors were paid in kind. In
return for their copyright they received a number of copies of their
books, which they were at liberty to dispose of as best they could. Now,
while Levinsohn's copies of his _Bet Yehudah_ were still at the
publisher's, a fire broke out, and most of them were consumed.
The _Te'udah be-Yisrael_ had been prompted by a desire to prove the
compatibility of modern civilization with Judaism. Levinsohn's object in
writing his _Bet Yehudah_ was the reverse.
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