Moshe Leib Lilienblum

Moshe Leib Lilienblum (Yiddish: משה לייב לילינבלום‎; October 22, 1843 in Keidany, Kovno Governorate – February 12, 1910 in Odessa) was a Jewish scholar and author. He also used the pseudonym Zelaphchad Bar-Chuschim (Hebrew: צלפחד בר־חושים‎‎).

He was the son of R. Zevi, a poor cooper. From his father he learned the calculation of the course of the stars in their relation to the Hebrew calendar (Ḥaṭṭot Ne'urim, vol. 1, p. 15). His maternal grandfather, who was a teacher, also contributed to his early education. At the age of thirteen he organized a society of boys for the study of En Ya'aqob (Ḥaṭṭot Ne'urim, vol. 1, p. 14); and at the age of fifteen he married and settled at Vilkomir. A change in the fortunes of his father-in-law threw him upon his own resources, and in 1865, Lilienblum established a yeshivah in Vilna and another the following year (Ḥaṭṭot Ne'urim, vol. 1, p. 53-54).

Changes affecting the Jewish community over the years, however, wrought a great change in Lilienblum's attitude toward Judaism and the Jewish Question. Initially, he had read the writings of the Maskilim, the leaders of Haskalah, particularly those of Mapu and M. A. Ginzburg. These produced in him a feeling of dissatisfaction with traditional Talmudic studies and an abhorrence for the ignorance and superstition surrounding him; he decided, therefore, to combat these faults. In an article entitled Orḥot ha-Talmud, in Ha-Meliẓ, 1868, he arraigned the superstitious beliefs and practises of his people, demanded the reform of Judaism, and insisted upon the necessity of establishing a "closer connection between religion and life." This article, and others of the same nature to follow, stirred up the Jewish communities in Russia, and a storm of indignation against him arose among the more traditionalist Orthodox; he was denounced as a freethinker and his continued residence in Wilkomir became impossible. In 1869, he then went to Odessa where he intended to prepare himself for the university (Ḥaṭṭot Ne'urim, vol. 2, p. 3), but he was compelled to give up that idea.

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