ABSTRACT
M. L. Lilienblum was attracted to the controversial character of Elisha Ben Avuyah from the time he began to write. Lilienblum’s work ‘Mishnat Elisha Ben Avuyah’ consists of several sections and is written in the conventional form of the satirical parody of eighteenth and nineteenth century Haskalah Hebrew literature. The satirist in the guise of the editor explains to the reader how that particular work came into his possession. Elisha Ben Avuyah’s confession in his letter is a combination of apologetics and polemics, and its satirical character is expressed by the language, Elisha Ben Avuyah considers it his duty to give to his readers—who have been educated in the tradition of antagonism against him—a convincing explanation about his way and the sense of mission animating him. Lilienblum’s choice of the parody as the form for his polemic-satirical work deserves careful scrutiny.
