Yehuda Friedlander

The third volume in the series deals with two main figures in 19th century Hebrew satire: Judah Leib Mises (1798-1831) and Moses Leib Lilienblum (1843-1910). The Satiric writings of Mises depict Hasidism as the image of Demonism. His scholastic satire consists of a fictitious study marked by a mixture of routine and innovation, both in terms of its type and structure, and in terms of its contents and the manner in which they are fashioned. Regarding type and structure, this is a ''conversation in Heaven'' between Maimonides and Rabbi Solomon ben Moses of Chelm (1717?-1781). The satire 'Mishnat Elisha Ben Avuyah' (1878) by M.L. Lilienblum depicts the controversy between Lilienblum and the world of the Orthodox Yeshivot. Lilienblum was attracted to the controversial character of Elisha Ben Avuyah from the time he began to write. This work is written in the conventional form of the satirical parody of eighteenth and nineteenth century Haskalah Hebrew literature. It opens with a 'short introduction' by the editor in which the satirist in the guise of the editor explains to the reader how that particular work came to his possession. The work depicts Orthodox rabbis as 'fanatics', and Lilienblum's purpose in presenting Elisha Ben Avuyah to his readers was to depict Elisha as a stereotype of the ideal maskil, and to write a satirical disputation against the outlook of the Orthodox rabbis, which absolutely negated their lifestyle and that of those who come under their aegis, and to propose an alternative way of life.