Background
He was born on April 23, 1720 at Sielec, Belarus.
grammarian mathematician scientist cabalist
He was born on April 23, 1720 at Sielec, Belarus.
As a teacher he was one of the first to discriminate between the various strata in rabbinic records; to him was due the revival of interest in the older Midrash and in the Palestinian Talmud, interest in which had been weak for some centuries before his time. He was an ascetic, and was a keen opponent of the emotional mysticism which was known as the new Hassidism.
His voluminous writings are classified in the Jewish Encyclopedia