Samson Raphael Hirsch

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Samson Raphael Hirsch, portrait

Samson ben Raphael Hirsch ( Hebrew שמשון בן רפאל הירש, born on June 20, 1808 in Hamburg ; died on December 31, 1888 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German rabbi . He is considered to be the leading representative of Orthodox Judaism in Germany in the 19th century and the founder of Neo-Orthodoxy, a school of thought that u. a. led to the establishment of independent "exit communities" .

Life

Samson Raphael Hirsch as an Oldenburg state rabbi, around 1830–1840.

Samson Raphael Hirsch was born in 1808 to Raphael Mendel Hirsch and Gela Hirsch. The father, who belongs to the Hamburg merchant class, was born in Hamburg in 1777 , where his family had lived for eight generations. Later Raphael Mendel Hirsch turned to the money and exchange business and ran a lottery business . After studying the Talmud in Hamburg with his grandfather, Rabbi Mendel Frankfurter and with his father Raphael Hirsch (who changed his surname Frankfurter to Hirsch) as well as with Chacham Bernays and later with Chief Rabbi Jakob Ettlinger in Mannheim , Samson studied classical languages from 1829 at the University of Bonn , History and philosophy. There he made friends with Abraham Geiger , who later became the leader of the reform movement , and together with him founded an association of Jewish students, in which the study of homiletics was initially intended, but the deeper purpose of which was to come closer to Jewish values. This friendship between the future leaders of the future leading figures of the two opposing tendencies of German Jewry came to an end after Geiger had sharply but respectfully criticized the content of the Nineteen Letters on Judaism (אגרות צפון), one of Hirsch's main works, in the 1830s.

From 1830 to 1841, Hirsch was the regional rabbi of Oldenburg . There he married Johanna Jüdel in 1832, who bore him eleven children. Here he wrote his two most important works, the aforementioned Nineteen Letters , which first appeared in Altona in 1836 under the pseudonym "Ben Usiel", and Choreb, or attempts on Jissroel's duties in the diversion (1837). Heinrich Graetz was so impressed by the nineteen letters that he came to Oldenburg to visit in 1837 and spent three years with Hirsch to complete his Jewish education. Later he dedicated his book Gnosticism and Judaism (1846) to the "unforgettable teacher" Hirsch.

Gravestones of Samson Raphael Hirsch and his wife Johanna

In 1841 Hirsch moved to Emden , where he was rabbi of the Aurich Jewish community and second regional rabbi of the Emden regional rabbinate ( including the Aurich and Osnabrück territories ), and from June 30, 1847 to 1851, he lived in Nikolsburg as the chief rabbi of Austrian Silesia and Moravia . Here Hirsch took part during the March Revolution . In 1848/1849 he was an elected representative in the Kremsier Landtag of Moravia and actively campaigned for the emancipation of Austrian and Moravian Jews. Unanimously elected chairman of the committee for civil and political rights of Jews in Moravia, he drafted a constitution for a central Jewish authority for all of Moravia. Its middle position between the orthodox direction and the reform movement, however, led to conflicts with the extreme representatives of orthodoxy there. In 1851, Hirsch received a call as rabbi of the Orthodox Israelite Religious Society in Frankfurt am Main, which separated itself as the "exit community" from the unified community comprising both the liberals and the Orthodox . He held this office for 37 years until his death. In 1853 he founded and directed the separate Realschule of the Israelitische Reformgesellschaft, which was named after him Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in 1928 . 12,000 to 15,000 people attended his funeral in the Jewish cemetery in Rat-Beil-Strasse on January 1, 1889, including Markus Horovitz (conservative) and Rudolf Plaut (liberal).

His eldest son Mendel Hirsch (1833–1900) worked as a school principal and wrote some Bible commentaries.

Attitude to orthodox Judaism

Hirsch drew his educational ideal from the sayings of the fathers , with the quote from Rabbi Gamaliel I : "It is nice to study the Torah together with 'Derech Erez'", ie worldly occupation or worldly studies. The ideal Jew, the “Yissroel man”, a term he coined, was in his opinion “an enlightened Jew who observes the commandments ”. Hirsch sought to realize this ideal in the three schools he founded: a primary school, a secondary school and a middle school for girls. In addition to the Hebrew language and Jewish subjects, German, mathematics and geography were also taught here. This plan for an extended school education brought Hirsch into conflict with the orthodox rabbi Seligmann Bär Bamberger , but it was also a reaction to the philanthropist in Frankfurt , led by representatives of the reform movement . SR Hirsch was thus the founder of Neo-Orthodoxy, which is also called "Frankfurt Orthodoxy" and was introduced by the British Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler and his son Hermann Adler in 19th century England. The simultaneous existence in two world spaces, in a sacred and a profane world, allowed the followers of neo-orthodoxy to deal with questions of philosophy, ethics, literature and music in addition to observing the commandments. They did not have to fear that they would alienate themselves from the faith. The conflict between reason and faith has a centuries-old tradition in Judaism and in principle goes back to the medieval Maimonides dispute .

In 1854, Hirsch published a work The religion in league with progress , in which he denied the argument of the reform movement that the connection between traditional Judaism and a secular education was impossible. He himself recognized the need for an outward adjustment of Judaism to the needs of the time, but opposed a fundamental change in Jewish beliefs or changes in compliance with Jewish laws. In his view, it was not Judaism that needed reform, but the Jews themselves. The Jews did not need “progress” (the slogan of the reformers) but “exaltation”.

Samson Raphael Hirsch introduced some changes in the liturgy , such as a male choir under the direction of a professional conductor, participation of the congregation in the chants and a sermon twice a month in the “national cultural language”, ie German. At the same time, however, he defended the Hebrew language as the only appropriate language for prayer and teaching of Jewish subjects. If our ancestors, he argued, had written their prayers in the language of the surrounding peoples, they would now be incomprehensible to us; so for him the Hebrew language was an important link among the Jews in the diaspora . Although he admitted that the medieval piyyutim were difficult to understand and alien to the modern mind, it did not seem appropriate to remove them from the prayer book . On the other hand, according to Graetz's testimony - and on his advice - he took out the Kol Nidre prayer on the grounds that it was easily misunderstood.

SR Hirsch's importance as a religious spiritual leader, his far-reaching influence as a preacher and teacher, organizer and writer made him a pioneer of neo-orthodoxy in its confrontation with reform-liberal Judaism. Although he strongly advocated the halachic principles, Hirsch always endeavored to reconcile the political and cultural realities of modern life with Judaism. For him, his view of Judaism was not a philosophical speculation, but an explanation of the revelation on Sinai . Although his ideas were opposed by many representatives of German Jewry, his personal qualities won him respect and influence.

Works (selection)

  • Nineteen letters on Judaism. As a preliminary request for the publication of “Experiments” by the same author “On Israel and its duties” . Edited by Ben Usiel. ( Pseudonym of SR Hirsch) Johann Friedrich Hammerich, Altona 1836 digitized .
  • Horev, or Attempts on Iissroel's Duties in Amusement, initially for Iissroel's thinking youths and virgins . Johann Friedrich Hammerich, Altona 1837 digitized .
  • Religion in league with the progress of a black man . Reinhold Beist, Frankfurt a. M. 1854.
  • Jeschurun. A monthly newspaper for the promotion of the Jewish spirit and life, published by Samson Raphael Hirsch in the home, community and school . Reinhold Beist, Frankfurt a. M. 1854–1870 born in 1859/60 as digitized version. Born in 1863/64 as digitized version
  • The Pentateuch translates and explains . 5 volumes. J. Kauffmann , Frankfurt a. M. 1867-1873 online .
  • Translation and commentary of the Psalms. 1883. Reprint, Morascha Verlag, Basel digitized .
  • Naphtali Hirsch (Ed.): Collected writings. Vol. I - VII, J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt a. M. 1902-1912 digitized .
  • Siddûr tefillôt Yiśrāʾēl / Israel's prayers translated and explained. J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt a. M. 1895 digitized version (3rd edition 1921).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ e.g. Simha Katz, Yehoyada Amir: Hirsch, Samson (ben) Raphael. In: Encyclopedia Judaica . 2007; Yizhak Ahren: Guide through the modern age. In: Jüdische Allgemeine . June 19, 2008; So also on his gravestone etc.
  2. ↑ Roland Tasch: Samson Raphael Hirsch - Jewish worlds of experience in a historical context , Walter de Gruyter, 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-025109-8 , pp. 29 and 31
  3. ^ The Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt . With photos by Klaus Meier-Ude and texts by Valentin Senger. : Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 61.
  4. ↑ ibid.
  5. ^ Paul Ansberg, p. 202.

literature

Web links

Commons : Samson Raphael Hirsch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

personal data
SURNAME Hirsch, Samson Raphael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hirsch, Samson ben Raphael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1888
Place of death Frankfurt am Main