Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn

Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn ( Traditional Jewish Lithuanian pronunciation : Avrohom Dov Beyr Leybenzon ) (born in Vilnius, Russian Empire c. 1789/1794; died there November 19, 1878) was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebraist, poet, and grammarian.

Like all Jewish boys of that time in Russian Lithuania he was educated as a Talmudist, but became interested in Hebrew grammar and punctuation when, at the age of eleven, he was instructed in reading in public the weekly portions of the Law. He was married, according to the custom of those times, as soon as he had celebrated his bar mitzvah / Bar Mistvo ; and he spent the following eight years with his wife's parents in Michailishki, in the government of Vilna. This gave him the surname "Michailishker," by which he was popularly known; and it also accounts for the last letter in his pen-name "Adam" (formed from the initials of Abraham Dob Michailishker), while the family name "Lebensohn," which he adopted, is a literal translation of "ben Ḥayyim." / "Beyn Cayim" . He afterward lived about four years in Oshmiany, in the government of Vilna, where he attempted to establish himself as a merchant. He was now an accomplished rabbinic scholar; but he devoted most of his leisure time to the study of Hebrew poetical and grammatical works. On returning to his native city, where he remained for the rest of his life, he engaged in teaching, a profession which he followed until his old age, except for about fifteen years in which he was engaged in the business of a broker.

His first poetical work to be published was the Shir Ḥabibim / Shir Chovivim (Vilnius, 1822), in honor of the marriage of Count Tyszkiewicz, one of the most powerful noblemen of Lithuania. It was followed by Ebel Kabed / Eyvel Koveyd (ib. 1825), an elegy on the death of R. Saul Katzenellenbogen; this established the author's reputation as a Hebrew poet. The publication of the first volume of his poetry, entitled Shire Sefat Ḳodesh / Shirey Sfas Kodesh (Leipzig, 1842; 2d ed. Vilnius, 1863), marks the beginning of a new epoch in Neo-Hebrew literature in Lithuania. It is the first poetical work of the rejuvenated literature that can be favorably compared with the works of that nature which were produced in western European countries. It was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Thousands of young men in sympathy with the Haskalah movement, of which Lebensohn became the leading exponent in Lithuania, learned to recite the songs of Shire Sefat Ḳodesh / Shirey Sfas Kodesh by heart; and the fame of the author spread to all centers of Hebrew learning.

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