Atheism, enthusiasm and early Haskalah: the case of Jehuda Hurwitz of Vilna

ENJehuda Hurwitz was born in Vilna in 1734, the son of a rabbi and of an extensive family. The circle of the traditional-scholarly elite was not only his primary social and cultural sphere of reference, it also defined his lifelong cultural and social identification. He was identified as a talmid hakham, and certainly a representative of the elite. The approbations of major Polish-Lithuanian, and German and Dutch rabbis printed in his books testify to his status. Hurwitz emphasized his standing as a scholar, and referred to himself on the title page as "man of great rabbinical learning." Neither did he play down his admiration for the "great scholars of Poland and Lithuania" or his pride at having gained the assent of some of the greatest contemporary rabbis - those of Furth, Manheim, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Prague and Breslau. He was particularly proud of the approbation of the Vilna Gaon (who praised the author only in general terms without referring to the book's content), whom he called "the divinely pious Jewish genius, our teacher the rabbi, Rabbi Eliyahu may his light shine forth, head of the esteemed community of Vilna" [p. 171].