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Chapter  Intellectual Inferiority: The Affront In the winter of , a young Jewish student walked through the corridors of the faculty of medicine at the University of Frankfurt-on-Oder, his heart consumed by a sense of despair and frustration. Shmuel Shimon BenYaacov , a native of Raudenai in Lithuania, had come to the Prussian University from Opatow, Poland, where he lived, to fulfill his dream of studying medicine . Like other Jewish students at German universities, from the end of the seventeenth century, Shmuel had received a well-grounded religious education (before coming to Prussia, he studied for two years in Rabbi Meir Frankel’s beit midrash [house of study] in Pinsk), and like them he needed a special permit from the rulers of Prussia, to study in the academic institution.1 Not only did Shmuel Ben-Yaacov have to cope with the enormous challenge academic studies posed, he also had to endure the pain of loneliness and the distressing sense of being doubly exiled—as the only Jewish student in the university that year, alone in a foreign, Christian world. He might have been able to overcome his misery if he could only find one other student of his faith, so they could give one another support and, in their spare time, study religious literature as they had been accustomed to doing in their youth. When he learned that a Jewish student, Isaac Wallich of Koblenz, from a highly respected family of physicians, was enrolled at Halle University that year, he hastened to send him an emotional letter, suggesting that Isaac transfer to Frankfurt University and join him there. Within a few weeks, he received a reply.2 These two young men, who were apparently in their later teens, wrote their letters in mellifluous scholarly Hebrew, in ornate, embellished rhymed prose, interspersed with biblical verses, and in talmudic patterns of language. In them, they expressed their fervent desire to excel in their studies. They wrote of their boundless admiration for the new science, whose treasures were revealed to them at the German university, and their favorable impression of the diverse cosmopolitan student body, which even included students from faraway, exotic China. In particular, they wrote about their passion for knowledge : ‘‘The fervor that the Almighty has imprinted upon me lusts and yearns to quench its thirst in the chokhmot, and most of all, to light a torch to guide  Chapter  me in the chokhmah of medicine,’’ the student from Frankfurt wrote. And his friend from Halle lavished extravagant praise on the skills and innovative ideas of the well-known professor Friederich Hoffman (–), whose teachings he thirstily imbibed: ‘‘Had you not seen his genius at length, it would have seemed incredible. It bursts forth in every chokhmah and lore and nothing is hidden from him, he inquires into all mysteries, not only is his erudition vast in the science of medicine but he also has knowledge in the esoteric wisdoms and in all other inquiries.’’ Professor Hoffman had such a great affection for the Jewish student Isaac that he took him under his wing, concealing from him none of his innovative methods of healing, contrary to the conduct of other physicians at the time.3 And ‘‘he tells me of all the remedies and singular secrets that he has acquired and devised . . . that he will not disclose to one among thousands,’’ Issac Wallich proudly wrote. Each of these two young men was the only Jewish student in his university , and each sought a companion with whom to converse and study. ‘‘Oh, my brother, how much we would inquire into every wisdom and discretion as the good Lord allows us,’’ Shmuel wrote to the student in Halle, ‘‘in religious study, in all its categories, sorts, and distinctions, as well as in matters of wisdom from the holy books of our ancestors or from the books of the gentiles written in their languages.’’ However, all entreaties to Wallich pleading with him to transfer from Halle to Frankfurt to rescue him from his lonely state and be a companion were of no avail. Wallich was already then in an advanced stage of his studies, living comfortably in the home of the wealthy Jewish banker Asher Markus, and enjoying his patronage, and he saw no reason to leave the faculty of medicine, then considered the best and most modern in Germany. He was enthralled by Halle University and its vibrant, tolerant atmosphere, and he suggested that Shmuel join him there: ‘‘We will be together, what can...

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