Early Life
He received his general education principally from his father, Hirschel Levin, who had served as rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London and as chief rabbi of Berlin. Saul, the eldest son, was given an education in both the Talmud and secular subjects. His brother, Solomon Hirschell, eventually became Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
Saul Berlin was ordained as a rabbi at 20. By 1768, aged 28, he had a rabbinic post in Frankfort-on-the-Oder in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. He married Sarah, the daughter of Rabbi Joseph Jonas Fraenkel of Breslau.
In Berlin and Breslau (where he frequently went to visit his father-in-law, R. Joseph Jonas Fränkel), he came into personal contact with the representatives of the movement for progress in Judaism, and became one of its most enthusiastic adherents.
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