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| | Haskalah |
 | | The haskalah was the movement among European Jews in the late 18th century toward adopting enlightenment values, integration into the larger gentile society, and acquiring the knowledge, manners, and aspirations of the gentile nations among whom they lived. |
 | | It is identified with the substitution of the study of modern subjects for the study of the Talmud; with opposition to fanaticism, superstition, and Hasidism; with the adoption by Jews of agriculture and handicrafts; and with a desire to keep in touch with the times. |
 | | The "bi'ur," or grammatical commentary (see Biurists), prepared under Mendelssohn's supervision, was designed to counteract the influence of the Talmudical or rabbinical method of exegesis, and, together with the translation, it became, as it were, the primer of haskalah. |
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