Moses Sofer

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Moses Sofer bigraphy, stories - Austro-Hungarian rabbi

Moses Sofer : biography

26 September 1762 – 03 October 1839

Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work Chatam Sofer or Chasam Sofer, (trans. Seal of the Scribe and acronym for Chidushei Toras Moshe Sofer or Chatas), was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a teacher to thousands and a powerful opponent to the Reform movement in Judaism, which was attracting many people from the Jewish communities in Austria-Hungary and beyond. As Rav of the city of Pressburg, he maintained a strong Orthodox Jewish perspective through communal life, first-class education, and uncompromising opposition to Reform and radical change.

Sofer established a yeshiva in Pressburg, which became the most influential yeshiva in Central Europe, producing hundreds of future leaders of Hungarian Jewry. This yeshiva continued to function until World War II; afterward, it was relocated to Jerusalem under the leadership of the Chasam Sofer’s great-grandson, Rabbi Akiva Sofer (the Daas Sofer).

Sofer published very little during his lifetime. His posthumously published works include more than a thousand responsa, novellae on the Talmud, sermons, biblical and liturgical commentaries, and religious poetry. He is an oft-quoted authority in Orthodox Jewish scholarship. Many of his responsa are required reading for semicha (rabbinic ordination) candidates. His Torah chiddushim (original Torah insights) sparked a new style in rabbinic commentary, and some editions of the Talmud contain his emendations and additions.

Actions of students and descendants

Sofer’s most notable student Rabbi Moshe Shic, together with Sofer’s sons, the rabbis Shimon and Samuel Benjamin, took an active role in arguing against the Reform movement. They showed relative tolerance for heterogeneity within the Orthodox camp. Others, such as the more zealous Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein, supported a more stringent position in orthodoxy.

Rabbi Moshe Shic demonstrated support in 1877 for the separatist policies of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany. His son Mosheh Schick studied at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary, which taught secular studies and was headed by Azriel Hildesheimer. Hirsch, however, did not reciprocate. He was surprised at what he described as Schick’s halakhic contortions in condemning even those Status Quo communities that clearly adhered to halakhah., YIVO Encyclopedia Hillel Lichtenstein opposed Hildesheimer and his son Hirsh in their speaking German to give sermons and their tending toward Modern Zionism.

In 1871 Shimon Sofer, Chief Rabbi of Krakow, founded the Machzikei Hadas organisation with the Chassidic Rabbi Joshua Rokeach of Belz. This was the first effort of Haredi Jews in Europe to create a political party; it was part of the developing identification of the traditional Orthodoxy as a self-defined group. Rabbi Shimon was nominated as a candidate to the Polish Regional Parliament under the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph. He was elected to the "The Polish Club," in which he took active part until his death.

Another notable group is Satmar, which was founded by rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum (Ujhel), who was a chassid who paid homage to the Chasam Sofer and had similar views to that of rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein. His descendant rabbi Joel Teitelbaum headed the Edah Charedis for many years, living in Israel and later in the United States, where he influenced Orthodox Jewry.

Starting in 1830, about twenty disciples of Sofer settled in Palestine, almost all of them in Jerusalem. They joined the Old Yishuv, which comprised the Musta’arabim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim. They also settled in Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. Together with the Perushim and Hassidim, they formed an approach to Judaism reflecting those of their European counterparts.

Notable disciples of the Pressburg Yeshiva who had major influence on mainstream orthodoxy in Palestine were Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (student of Ksav Sofer) and Rabbi Yitzchok Yerucham Diskin (son of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, from Brisk, Lithuania), who together in 1919 founded the Edah HaChareidis in then-Mandate Palestine.