Moses Mendelssohn משה מנדלסון
Enlightenment philosopher, father of the Haskalah
Moshe ben Menachem was born in Dessau in 5489 and came to Berlin as a teenager through the gate reserved for cattle and Jews. He studied Hebrew and Talmud, and alongside them Latin, mathematics and philosophy. By thirty he was a famous German writer: his «Phaedon» on the immortality of the soul was reprinted across Europe, and Lessing modelled «Nathan the Wise» on him.
He remained an observant Jew and saw no contradiction. In «Jerusalem» he argued that the state has no right to coerce belief, and that Judaism is not a system of dogmas but revealed legislation: a Jew is bound to the commandments and free in thought.
His decisive practical step was a German translation of the Torah, printed in Hebrew letters with the «Biur» commentary. It was meant as a bridge — let a Jewish youth learn proper German over a Chumash rather than in a tavern. The rabbis were wary, and their fears proved founded: for many the translation became a door out rather than in.