Moses Sofer

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Moses Schreiber-Sofer, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , around 1830

Moses Sofer , German name: Moses Schreiber or Mosche Schreiber , known as Chatam Sofer (born in September 1762 in Frankfurt am Main ; died on October 3, 1839 in Pressburg / Bratislava ), was a leading Orthodox rabbi of the 19th century.

Surname

The name Sofer is a translation of the German word "Schreiber". The term Chatam Sofer ( Hebrew חת"ם סופר) is an acronym for Chidusche Torat Moshe (Hebrew חידושי תורת משה) - "Insights into the Torah of Moses", an allusion to both Sofer's first name Moses and the " Torah of Moses ”, which, according to Jewish tradition, he received from God on Mount Sinai.

Life

Sofer grew up in Frankfurt am Main, where Pinchas Horowitz and Nathan Adler were his most important teachers. In 1776 he switched to the yeshiva of Rabbi David Tebele Scheuer (1712–1782) in nearby Mainz . There he was tutored by Rabbi Mechel Scheuer (1739-1810), the son of Rabbi Tebele, until his return to Frankfurt in 1777.

When Adler had to leave Frankfurt due to internal resistance in the Jewish community, Sofer followed him on his hikes at the age of 19. Although he never returned to his hometown, he was always proud of his origins and signed his letters with "Moses ha-Katan [the" little one "," insignificant one "] from Frankfurt am Main". He was first rabbi in Dresnitz in Moravia (today Strážnice ) and Mattersdorf and was appointed rabbi of Pressburg in 1806, where he stayed for the rest of his life. During his 33-year stay in Pressburg, where the most important Jewish community in the Kingdom of Hungary lived at that time, he made a reputation for himself as a leading representative of Orthodox Judaism in the fight against the emerging Reform Judaism . He founded an important yeshiva in Pressburg .

Sofer wrote numerous works, but hardly anything was published by him during his lifetime. Immediately after his death, his family began editing his writings. These include, among other things, seven volumes of responses and two volumes of sermons, novels on the Talmud , commentaries on the Torah , letters, poems and a diary.

Marriage and offspring

Sofer's first wife died childless in 1812. A few months later he married the daughter of Akiba Eger , who was considered the greatest Talmudist of his time and who later became the rabbi of Poznan . Sofer's descendants formed an important rabbinical dynasty. His eldest son Abraham Samuel Benjamin Sofer (later called Ktav Sofer or Ksav Sofer , 1815–1871) he appointed as his successor as head of the Bratislava yeshiva. His second son Simon (1820-1883) became a rabbi in Cracow . His son-in-law Salomon Salman Spitzer was a rabbi of the Orthodox community in Vienna . A son of Abraham Sofer, Simon (1850–1944), founded a yeshiva in Erlau and worked there as a teacher until he was deported to Auschwitz as a result of the German occupation of Hungary and murdered there.

Death and afterlife

Chatam Sofer mausoleum

Sofer was buried in the old Jewish cemetery below Castle Hill in Bratislava. The cemetery was almost completely destroyed in 1942/1943 by the construction of a road tunnel , most of the graves were reburied in a collective grave in the Orthodox cemetery, only the most important section with the grave of Moses Sofer remained under a concrete ceiling. At the beginning of the 1980s, a tram line was run across the site. For decades there was only one hidden entrance to the underground grave, which was largely forgotten outside of the Jewish community. After 1992 negotiations began to make the tomb accessible, the tram tracks were relocated and a mausoleum was opened in 2002, which is visited by Orthodox pilgrims from all over the world.

literature

Web links

Commons : Moses Sofer  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dagmar Wienand: In the underground. Pressburg: The mausoleum of Rabbi Chatam Sofer is located under the noisiest street in the city. In: The time. May 1, 1992, accessed October 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Peter Salner, Martin Kvasnica: Chatam Sofer Memoriál . Marenčin PT, Bratislava 2012, ISBN 978-80-8114-126-3 (Slovak).
personal data
SURNAME Sofer, Moses
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sofer, Chatam; Scribe, Moses; Clerk, moshe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION orthodox rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH September 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1839
Place of death Pressburg