Barit lost his parents early in life and at the age of fourteen came to the city of Kovno, where he studied Talmud in the bet ha-midrash of the suburb Slobodka.

There he entered the bet hamidrash of Rabbi Hayyim Nachman Parnes, at the same time studying modern languages and sciences; and he soon acquired a fair knowledge of Russian, German, French, algebra, and astronomy.

When Sir Moses Montefiore visited Vilna in 1846, he spent considerable time in Barit's house, and was guided by his advice as to the form of the petition to Emperor Nicholas I, on behalf of the oppressed Russian Jews.

In 1850, when Hayyim Parnes established a yeshiva for the education of rabbis, Barit was appointed principal (rosh-yeshibah), a position he held for twenty-five years until sickness forced him to resign.

About twenty-five learned Talmudic students attended his lectures daily, and many of the eminent Russian rabbis and scholars were graduates of his yeshivah, such as Yisrael Meir Kagan and Eliyahu Shlomo of Lida.

Barit's chief merit,[1] in addition to his work in these two posts, was his valuable services rendered to the Jews of Vilna and to those of all Russia in representing their interests before the Russian government.