Toldot rabenu he-hakham Mosheh ben Menahem (Biography of Our Wise Teacher, Moses, Son of Menachem)

On the twelfth of the month of Elul in the year five thousand four hundred and eighty-nine, Menaḥem the scribe and teacher of young children in the community of Dessau, became the father of Moses , [Menaḥem’s] wife’s name being Sara. May their name remain as an everlasting memorial, proclaiming: “Happy are you, parents of the righteous one, how pleasant is your lot! Understand this, you who love Truth!” The father of Moses was a teacher of young children—as you will be aware, this is the lowliest of positions and a repugnant occupation, into which only the most feeble of men, who are seeking refuge from the raging heat of famine, will put themselves. Such men as these enjoyed neither wealth nor honor, and were reduced to the status of those departed from the world in this bitter exile: what person of upright heart, worthy of honor and of receipt of blessings, can witness the evil nature of this situation without feeling grief at the lack of knowledge displayed by those who despise it? But notwithstanding all this, [ Moses ’ father] shared his bread with him and gave him to drink from his waters until such time as he had left the city of his birth; and he did not allow him to depart until Moses pressed him strongly to let him do so. “Proclaim concerning the righteous that he is good, and may he consume the fruits of his fine deeds!”

Moses was taken to school and studied in the manner of all the youth of our nation, who merrily chirp away the laws pertaining to divorce and to marriage, to those suffering and those causing damage, and numerous topics of a similar kind that are far beyond their ability to grasp, before having even learned to read a single verse of scripture properly; and by the age of six, he was already studying halakhah and Tosafot. (Now it is only right to make mention here of the words of one with a close spiritual bonding to him—of his friend and disciple, R. David Friedländer—who related what he had heard from the mouth of the most honorable sage, that even in wintertime, his father used to get up early to bring him to the bet midrash, while he was still but a young lad of seven years of age, of a delicate temperament and disposition, carrying him on his shoulder, wrapped in his cloak, at three or four o’clock in the morning, after having given him a little hot water to drink.) But this young lad, Moses , was like no ordinary boy—while still in the freshness of youth, the spirit of discernment possessed him, and he perceived that this was not the way to grasp the essence even of a single item of knowledge, as it is impossible to understand clearly the contents of a single statement without possessing prior knowledge of the grammatical structure of language, and that it is not within an individual’s capacity to master the laws and customs that the authorities of later times have established without first having examined the landmarks set down by earlier authorities. Accordingly, he set his mind to study the books of the Bible with great diligence, and would accustom himself to write in a pure and unadulterated Hebrew; and when he was ten years of age, he composed several poems, though later, after having subjected them to proper scrutiny, they found no favor in his sight, and he declared: “My soul lacks this power—it does not contain within it the talents required for composing poetry; it is better suited for sharpening the intellect than for toying with diverse images through the power of the imagination!” Accordingly, he composed no more Hebrew poetry throughout his life. Now although we ourselves can see, from his translation of the Book of Psalms and the other poems that he translated, that he possessed great talent in the art of poetry too, he nonetheless regarded himself as only mediocre in this field, as is apparent from a letter that he wrote, when publishing the translation of the Psalms, to the renowned poet Rommler, requesting him to examine his work and to assess its worth. With the same degree of diligence, he learned the Talmud from the mouth of his splendid teacher, R. David Fraenkel—may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing—author of the work Korban ha-edah who was the head of the ecclesiastical court in the holy community of Dessau at that time. He studied the books of the Bible without the assistance of any teacher, and I have been informed by a trustworthy individual, who was his friend during his early youth in Berlin, that he literally knew all the books of the Bible by heart!