Introduction to Euclid

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.