Maskil

This article is about the Haskalah movement. For the Hebrew literary term heading some psalms, see Maskil (psalm). For the scholarly honorific, see Maskil (honorific).

Maskil (Hebrew: מַשְׂכִּיל, plural maskilim) is an identifier for individuals and ideas of the Haskalah movement, the European Jewish enlightenment between the 1770s and 1880s, who sought to reeducate Jews so that they could fit into modern society; they established schools and published works of cultural importance.[1] It was based upon the honorific maskil, meaning "scholar" or "enlightened man," used by Isaac Israeli ben Joseph in the 14th century to refer to his Italian Jewish colleagues.

List of Maskilim

There are 13 Psalms called maskils. They are 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89 and 142. It is believed that "maskil" means:

 ·   either a psalm with something special to teach, like 32 and 78, or
 ·   a psalm that the *psalmist wrote in a very clever way. (The *psalmist is the person who wrote the psalms.)

See also

References

  1. Hershel Edelheit and Abraham J. Edelheit, History of Zionism: A Handbook and Dictionary, Westview Press, (2000), p 17
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