Menachem Mendel Lefin


Menachem Mendel Lefin was an early leader of the Haskalah movement.

Biography

He was born in Satanov, Podolia, where he had a traditional Jewish education supplemented by studies in science, mathematics, and medieval philosophy. In the early 1780s he lived in Berlin, where he met Moses Mendelssohn and other Haskalah leaders. He was later introduced to Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, and became a tutor to Czartoryski's children in Podolia. He spent most of his life living in Galicia, and had great influence on Nachman Krochmal and Joseph Perl. He is widely regarded as the "father of the Galician Haskalah." He campaigned in favor of adding general education to the standard curriculum in Jewish schools, and he was a fierce opponent of the Hasidic movement and the Kabbalah, which he viewed as "nonsense." Among his influential works is a Musar text titled Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh, which was published in 1809, based in part on the ethical program described in the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Levin died in Tarnopol in 1826.
Among his writings are: