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By Chief Rabbi Dr. Lilienthal
Chajim Selig Slonimski, the Mathematician
Chajim Selig Slonimski was born in the city of
Bialystok on the 10th of March, 1810. His father Jacob was a pedlar in
glass-ware, and made barely enough by it to support his numerous family.
Selig received a good talmudical education, and at an early age he was
already looked upon as a smart boy. After the fashion, peculiar to the
Russians and Russian Jews, to unite the children early in wedlock, he
married, in his sixteenth year, at Sabladoff, a small town in the
neighbourhood of Bialystok. As usually, the father-in-law took the young
couple in his house, to pass there the first part of their married life.
Selig received also another teacher, Rabbi Hirsh Bashkes, known as an
eminent talmudist, to whom the young student had to apply for more
knowledge. But as pecuniary matters in his new home were rattler low,
and as he himself was already a good scholar in the Talmud, he concluded
to quit the Rabbi and to continue his studies by himself. He intended to
study the whole work, and with the iron zeal peculiar to him, he began
his task. Twenty-five pages were his weekly allowance; and when the
chapters were difficult to comprehend, the midnight hour found him up
yet, so that Friday’s noon might find the task accomplished. Happy and
satisfied, he hurried then to the hath, and the Sabbath hour brought him
back to his family, where he repeated, by heart, for himself, all that
he had studied during the week. He cared not for mere words, but he
meditated on the discussions, the different opinions and views of the
Rabbis, and a short time afterwards he was able to repeat, on every
Sabbath, the tractates of Sabbath and Erubin, and two years afterwards,
he was master of the Sedarim Seraim and Moed.
Many a happy hour had he passed, thus studying in
his lonely garret, when it happened that he got hold of the Kiddush
Hachodesh of Maimonides. The calculations of the almanac and the
astronomical observations captivated his mind, and he was only
astonished why the commentators, who follow Maimonides, were wanting for
this section; but this only increased his curiosity. He studied, several
times, the dissertation; but bare of all mathematical knowledge, he was
unable to master it, and the place and the people he lived with offered
him nothing to quench his literary thirst. Solitary and alone, he stood
before the hieroglyphics of Maimonides, till Providence took pity on
him. Book-pedlars are frequently passing through those small places with
their small carts and emaciated animals, and stop before the Batay
Hamidrash (high-schools) at the hour of prayer, to offer their wares to
the people and to the scholars of the Beth Hamidrash.
Such a book-pedlar passed through Sabladoff. At the
hour of mincha our Selig left his room and hastened to prayer. “What
Sephorim (books) have you for sale?” he asked the Jew, who showed him
among others the תכונת השמים
(Astronomy) of Rabbi Raphael Hannover. Selig was happy when he saw the
work, and asked for the price, which was considerable, as there was
already another bidder for this work, by a man who had the reputation of
a mathematician. This made matters worse, as Selig had no money, and he
could not bear to see the book in another man’s possession. “Let us
barter,” he said, “I give you theספר הברית,
which I know is worth three such works, but you must give me the book.”
The trade was soon made, and Selig hastened home with his newly-acquired
treasure. Night and day found him over his book, and in the short space
of ten days he was master of it. Now he went again over the Kiddush
Hachodesh, and every thing appeared in another light.
But, alas! man’s joys are of short duration. His
astronomical work showed no proofs and gave no causes. It remarked only,
that he who has the knowledge of plain and spherical trigonometry will
understand it; and where could he find the books, wherefrom take
counsel, to advance in his studies? He was alone, and had to return
therefore to his rabbinical studies, where he found many a difficult
passage, which he could not have solved without astronomical knowledge.
He was pleased to exercise his penetrating mind in the solution of such
difficulties; and one evening, after having solved stich a passage, he
went to the Beth Hamidrash, where he took his place close to the Rabbi.
It is the rule to remain, in the winter season, during the time between
the evening and night prayers, in the meeting house, where every one
occupies his time with some study. Selig opened his Talmud, and showed
to the Rabbi the passage in question; but the Rabbi could not explain it
in spite of all the trouble he put himself to, till Selig solved it to
him by a mathematical law. The old man was astonished, and as they, in
such small communities, commonly take a walk after prayer, the Rabbi
went to the mathematician of the place, and accosted him thus: “What do
you think? Selig is a Baal Techuna, (astronomer.) He showed me to-day a
gemara, which had no explanation at all, till he gave me an astonishing
good one.” The other, although he knew his mathematical reputation in
danger, went to Selig, and found in him a man with whom he could not
enter into competition; but he offered him willingly another work, the
Naaveh Kodesh of Rabbi Shimon Waltosh, which he had at home, but did not
understand.
Half an hour afterwards Selig had this book in his
possession. It treats on geometry, plain and spherical trigonometry, and
stereometry; the book had no plates; but Selig had not the remotest idea
that they were wanting, for he made all the figures himself. The works
he had before studied, appeared now clearer to his penetrating mind, and
he was, in a short time, such a master of this study, that he made for
himself the proofs for the rectangular triangle in the spherical
trigonometry, which were omitted in his work. As he passed before from
one corner of his garret to another, to find out the dissenting passages
in the Talmud, and to solve them if possible, his voice falling and
raising, and his hands and arms in continual motion, thus we find him
now with the same ardour solving the most difficult geometrical
problems, without any one of his family having the least idea of his
studies. His wife, a pious good-natured woman, knew nothing except God
and her husband. She attended a small retail grocery to support the
family, and their cow supplied them with milk and butter. Often, when
Selig’s mind was occupied with the hardest problems of trigonometry, his
wife would come running in his room, crying, “Selig, the cow is not in
the stable, the cowherd has not brought her home, go and look after
her.” And the good-natured mathematician had to run through the whole
village to look after the runaway cow, and he could speak of good luck
when he brought her safely home.
Just at this same time, another Jewish book-pedlar
arrived in Sabladoff, who had a Hebrew translation of Euclid by Rabbi
Baruch Sclower. He had only the one copy, and asked, therefore, a higher
price for it, than Selig was able to pay. He proposed therefore to the
pedlar, as it was Thursday already, to let him have the book till Monday
morning, and by this time he could let him know if be would buy it or
not. But he returned it on Monday; for he had studied it thoroughly by
that time.
Such facts seem incredible to those who are
unacquainted with the talents of the Russian Jews. A man high in office,
to whom I told these particulars, was astonished, and asked me, “How on
earth, was he able to go through those studies alone, and without a
teacher, if he found not a particular pleasure in it?” But “this
particular pleasure” which these Jews have for an independent study,
that occupies constantly their mind and sharpens their wits, is the only
explanation of all that is wonderful in such a phenomenon. When seven
years old, the Jewish boy in Russia begins to study the Talmud. No
readers, no manuals are put in his hands; short sentences, spiritual
lightenings, mental heiroglyphics, which allow the most manifold
explanations, pass the childish spirit; the melammed (teacher) points
them out to the child, but does not carry him over the difficulties; to
awaken the mind by the seeming paradox, he asks him, pressing, with
thumb erect, his other fingers in the palm of his hand, and yelling to
the boy his, “Now, now,” the solution of the passages in question. By
such an unmethodical method the mind of the child gets used to analyze,
or to take up a paradoxical thesis and to solve it, gets used to survey
quickly every thema, and to penetrate it with his piercing mind; for he
find himself continually thrown upon himself in his studies. We and our
age scoff at such a study, should we hear a teacher, in caftan and dirty
beard, explain the Talmud to a set of dirty boys in his curious manner
and singing voice. But the Russian Jew does not care a straw for forms,
for the shell, if he can only get hold of the kernel. He despises school
forms, for it is impossible to study the Talmud in any other way than in
a loud voice and lively discussion. The spirit may sleep when we study
listlessly a work; but it must be awake and at work when we discuss
loudly our ideas with a friend. How obtuse will always remain that
spirit which, parrot like, knows only to say what is found in books; but
must it not open our mind in a high degree, if that which we have
learned gives matter for farther study, and by such self-thinking
becomes really our own property? In fact, the way the Russian Jew is
educated proves clearly, that the appearance of a Slonimski, if the
natural abilities are only present, is easily explained; for he remarks
himself, very truly, that although no Jew in Russia ever learned to
calculate after the usual fashion, yet they are the best calculators.
After dinner, or in the hour of relaxation which the melammed allows,
the children teach one another the four elementary rules; with the
return of the teacher, the mathematical problem is quickly wiped out:
and thus, if you give a Jew the most complicated problem, he will try,
and twist, till he finds a solution; for the spiritual “help yourself,”
which a mathematical study requires, is the most akin to his own habit
of thinking, and therefore he prefers it to any other elementary study.
I have not the least doubt, that we could find new formulas, if we but
knew the way how many a Jew came to the solution of his problem. But let
us return to Slonimski.
A young man from Sabladoff, of the name of
Waldenberg, was a medical student in Wilna, and returned home during the
vacation. Selig showed him the mathematical figures he had made.
Waldenberg was astonished, and advised him to study the Shebilay
Derakiah of Rabbi Elijahu Heches; he told him, at the same time, that he
could only get a very imperfect knowledge of mathematics from Jewish
works, and it would be, therefore, necessary for him to study the German
works, if he desired to advance. But Selig did not know A from B; how,
then, should he study German works? his only trouble was, therefore, at
present, to get hold of the above-named book.
He knew that the druggist, Michael Sabluvofski, in
Bialystok, had an extensive Jewish library; he went, therefore, to see
him. He had not the courage, to ask in plain words for such a book, for
fear to be taken for a Berliner (sectarian. The Polish Jews call every
body who studies another book than the Talmud, a Berliner; because
Mendelssohn of Berlin prepared the way for the study of other sciences
by the translation of the Pentateuch.) After a long and circuitous talk,
where he spoke about all the works he had studied, he asked him if he
had none of those Sephorim? Sabluvofski replied, that he
possessed such books; but the Shebilay Derakinh was such a rare and
scarce work, that he did not like to lend it away. “I give you the
Alphasi* as pledge that I will return it quickly,” said Selig; “but do
not refuse me the study of such a book.” Sabluvofski then handed it to
him. On his journey home, he ran already over the pages of the rare
work, and on his arrival, we soon find him closeted over its perusal.
Two weeks sufficed to study it through, and with heartfelt thanks he
returned it to the owner, who, encouraged by such a persevering zeal,
gave him now the כללי החשבון of R.
David Friesenhansen. For the first time in his life, Selig learned from
this book, that there was a science called algebra. He perceived that
there must exist a close connexion between it and his geometry: but he
knew of no Hebrew work which could give him a clew. Sabluvofski, who was
now convinced of the rare qualities, the high genius, and the great zeal
of the young man, proposed to him to study German works, and introduced
him, therefore, to the architect of the place, with whom they hoped to
find such works. The man had nothing but Euler’s Algebra, and smiled
when he saw the young man with his black eyes, who did not understand an
A, fix his whole attention on the calculations. Selig received the book,
from which he had to study his spelling and his algebra. Sabluvofski put
over the German letters the corresponding ones of the Hebrew alphabet,
and in two days Selig was able to read. He hastened back to Sabluvofski,
where he passed half an hour over one page; but yet, in the two weeks he
had finished both volumes. The logical firmness in the conclusions, the
certainty of the mathematical problems, the methodical progress suited
his spirit, and when his family believed that he walked to and fro in
his garret, to learn a few tractates of the Talmud, he repeated in the
same twang now the contents of the two volumes of mathematics.
Being now able to read German works, he went, as
soon as he returned to Bialystok, to all the Jewish book-pedlars for
such books. In the street he met such a travelling bibliophile, who had
Mennig’s Cursus of Mathematics, in four volumes, for sale. It contains
the differential and integral calculus, optics, statics and
hydrostatics. Selig bought the work and took it home. For the first time
he owned a German work; and he had to fear to lose his reputation as a
pious Talmudist if it should be discovered. He hid it therefore on the
top of his bedstead, where among others the bread, the butter and
several utensils were placed. The busy housewife soon found it out: and,
alarmed, she asked him for the use of those
טרפה פסול? “Nothing,” he replied; “it is paper, to wrap on the
butter which you sell.”
Another hiding-place was soon found out, and, by
stealth, when nobody saw him, he continued his mathematical studies with
unabated zeal; and, in the short space of two months, he had finished
the ponderous work. He had enriched it by many a marginal note, had
found some mistakes and misprints, and begun to feel himself master of
his subject. In the short space of eighteen months he had learned it
all, although the fear to be discovered had robbed him of many a
precious hour. Thus he could never study during the month of Elul and
Tishri, as the days of repentance kept him continually employed, and in
the Succah he was unable to take hold of such a book. But now another
misfortune appeared. The three years, during which time his
father-in-law had engaged to support him and his family, were passed,
and being without means, and without any business, dreary prospects were
before him.
Nothing remained for him than to accept the place
of bookkeeper with his brother, who owned a glass manufactory, some
forty miles from Bialystok, deep in the woods. For a year and a half
every hope of progress was taken from him. He saw no book, no new work,
and occupied the few hours which were left him from the pressure of
business, with the rehearsal of what he had learned already. The world
was wanting, to apply his knowledge; he knew nothing else than his
mathematics and his Talmud, and so he applied his mathematics to the
Talmud. Thus he took the midrash of the Sidra Noah, where the Rabbis are
in dispute on the verse ואל אמה תכלנה מלמעלה,
and calculated after hydrostatic laws, how many foot water the ark of
Noah drew.
At length some change took place, and he was sent
on business to Grodno. There he heard that a Jewish stationer wanted to
sell his old stock of goods by weight. Selig went to him and told him
that he was willing to pay more for some books, if he would give him the
choice. Selig looked several times over the whole stock, till he found
the mathematical works of Abel Berrias in eighteen volumes. The bargain
was soon made, and he hastened home. There he dared not to tell any body
of his newly-acquired treasure, and in the deep hour of night only was
he able to pursue his beloved studies; but he felt in himself now, that
he had mastered his branch of science.
(To be
continued) |
