Introduction to Euclid

Baruch ben Jacob (Baruch of Shklov) Schick

1780

The Gentiles abuse us and say that we are a foolish nation, not a wise one. They consequently slander the words of our sages, and say that whoever studies them becomes divorced from the norms of civility and from nature [yibadel mi-hok ha-medini ve-teva ‘olam]. [ . . . ]

Such was not the way of our sages. No mystery, discipline, or science eluded…

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Creator Bio

Baruch ben Jacob (Baruch of Shklov) Schick

1744–1808

Baruch ben Jacob (Barukh ben Ya’akov) Schick was a rabbinic judge and science scholar who settled in Minsk in 1760. Encouraged by the Vilna Gaon, who advocated the study of sciences as a tool for understanding the Torah, Schick translated Euclid’s Elements into Hebrew. He also wrote texts on anatomy, preventive medicine, and mathematics, in the earlier part of his life drawing on sources from the Zohar. Schick was initially supported by Naftali Herts Wessely and other leaders of the Haskalah; later, they disparaged Schick for his uneven scholarship.

Related Guide

Haskalah and Pedagogy, 1750–1880

The first maskilim ransacked both Jewish and European tradition to find new platforms for creating and transmitting the Jewish cultural ideals they conceived. Jews enlisted diverse literary genres to call for social, educational, and economic change.

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