Baruch ben Jacob of Schklov. Derech Yesharah [on personal hygiene].

This scarce work on personal hygiene describes “the straight path upon which one should conduct one’s spiritual and physical actions in order to preserve one’s health” (preface). The author (1740-1812) positioned himself between the worlds of traditional Eastern-European learning and that of the budding Maskilic community. He began his rabbinic career serving as a dayan in Minsk but left to study medicine in England. R. Baruch published works on astronomy, anatomy, medicine and translated Euclid into Hebrew - a work inspired by the Vilna Gaon’s belief that important scientific texts should be translated and made available to the traditional Jews of the study-hall.