Isaac Erter was a Polish-Jewish

History of the Jews in Poland

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...

 satirist

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

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He was born at Janischok, Galicia. The first part of his life was full of struggles and hardships. After having associated for many years with the Hasidim

Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...

, he settled at Lemberg; and through the efforts of some of his friends, such as Rapoport, Krochmal

Nachman Krochmal

Nachman Kohen Krochmal was a Jewish Galician philosopher, theologian, and historian.-Biography:...

, and others, he obtained pupils whom he instructed in Hebrew language

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and other subjects. This comparatively happy state lasted for only three years (1813-16). Jacob Orenstein, chief rabbi of Lemberg, having been apprised of the existence among his flock of a small band occupied with the study of secular subjects, excommunicated them all. Deprived thus of his pupils, the only means of his subsistence, he settled in the neighboring town of Brody. There he struggled for a while, until he resolved to study medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

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Erter entered (1825) the University of Budapest, where he studied medicine for five years and passed all the prescribed examinations; he then practised his new profession in various Galician towns, including Brody, where he made himself especially popular among the poor and needy, who found in him a kindly benefactor. He died at Brody.

He composed a number of Hebrew satires, which have procured for him a prominent place among modern Hebrew satirists. For a time he edited a Hebrew periodical entitled "He-Halutz

Halutz

Halutz , Hebrew for a pioneer. It may refer to early Jewish immigrants to Palestine, including Hovevei Zion and Bilu during the First Aliyah, which generally pre-date the founding of Zionism...

," which was intended chiefly to promote culture and enlightenment among the Galician Jews. The periodical also advocated the establishment in Galicia of agricultural colonies for the employment and benefit of young Jews, and received some support from Vienna

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

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Erter's fame rests chiefly on his satires, published under the title "Ha-Tzofeh le-Bet Yisrael" (Vienna, 1858; ib. 1864), with a biography of the author and introduction by Max Letteris

Max Letteris

Max Letteris was an Austrian Jewish scholar and the foremost poet of the Galician Haskala.-Life:...

. They are six in number, and are admirable in form and style. Their titles are: "Mozne Mishqal"; "Ha-Tzofeh be-Shubo mi-Karlsbad

Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...

"; "Gilgul

Gilgul

Gilgul/Gilgul neshamot/Gilgulei Ha Neshamot describes a Kabbalistic concept of reincarnation. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to "cycle" through "lives" or "incarnations", being attached to different human bodies over time...

 ha-Nefesh"; "Tashlikh

Tashlikh

Tashlikh is a long-standing Jewish practice usually performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, however it can be said up until Hoshana Rabbah...

"; "Telunat Sani we-Sansani we-Samangaluf"; "Ḥasidut we-Ḥokmah." The most attractive of these is "Gilgul ha-Nefesh," the story of the many adventures of a soul during a long earthly career; how it frequently passed from one body into another, and how it had once left the body of an ass for that of a physician. The soul gives the author the following six rules, by observing which he might succeed in his profession:

1. Powder your hair white, and keep on the table of your study a human skull and some animal skeletons. Those coming to you for medical advice will then think your hair has turned white through constant study and overwork in your profession.

2. Fill your library with large books, richly bound in red and gold. Though you never even open them people will be impressed with your wisdom.

3. Sell or pawn everything, if that is necessary, to have a carriage of your own.

4. When called to a patient pay less attention to him than to those about him. On leaving the sick-room, assume a grave face, and pronounce the case a most critical one. Should the patient die, you will be understood to have hinted at his death; if, on the other hand, he recovers, his relations and friends will naturally attribute his recovery to your skill.

5. Have as little as possible to do with the poor; as they will only send for you in hopeless and desperate cases you will gain neither honor nor reward by attending them. Let them wait outside your house, that passers may be amazed at the crowd waiting patiently to obtain your services.

6. Consider every medical practitioner as your natural enemy, and speak of him always with the utmost disparagement. If he be young, you must say he has not had sufficient experience; if he be old, you must declare that his eyesight is bad, or that he is more or less crazy, and not to be trusted in important cases. When you take part in a consultation with other physicians, you would act wisely by protesting loudly against the previous treatment of the case by your colleagues. Whatever the issue may be, you will always be on the safe side.

Erter wrote also some Hebrew verse; but this won little acclaim compared to his prose, which Heinrich Grätz described as comparable in many points that of Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

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