MEISEL, MOSES BEN MORDECAI
- MEISEL, MOSES BEN MORDECAI
- MEISEL, MOSES BEN MORDECAI (c. 1758–c. 1838), Torah scholar
and maskil; born in Vilna. In his youth Meisel was one of the
disciples closest to the Vilna Gaon elijah b. solomon zalman . He
was familiar with German literature and became deeply interested in the
writings of moses mendelssohn . However, he was also in secret
contact with R. shneur zalman of lyady , the founder of the
chabad movement, and when this became known, he fled to Germany,
fearing persecution by the Vilna religious establishment. During the
Napoleonic Wars he conferred with the representatives of the French
government on several occasions. After acceding to R. Shneur Zalman's
request to stop these talks with people close to Napoleon, he was
suspected of collaborating with the Russian army and was compelled to
flee. He went to Ereẓ Israel but returned to Lithuania after the French
defeat. During the early 1820s he went once more to Ereẓ Israel and in
his last years was closely associated with sir moses montefiore .
He wrote Shirat Moshe (Shklov, 1788), on the 613 precepts.
Meisel died in Hebron.
-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
S. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (1860), 246–7; M. Teitelbaum,
Ha-Rav mi-Ladi (1910–13), 31, 156–8.
(Arthur Cygielman)
Encyclopedia Judaica.
1971.
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