Seckel Löb Wormser

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Grave of Seckel Löb Wormser in the Jewish cemetery in Michelstadt
Wormser's house at Erbacher Strasse 12 in Michelstadt

Rabbi Jizchok Arje , also Isac Löw Matthes Wormser , (born 1768 in Michelstadt im Odenwald ; died on September 13, 1847 there ; colloquially Seckel Löb Wormser , called the miracle rabbi of Michelstadt and Baal Schem of Michelstadt ) was a rabbi and scholar.

Quote

"Hardly any other Jew has left such a lasting impression on the memory of the Odenwald as Seckel (di Isaak ) Löb Wormser, who lived from 1768 to 1846 (Corr. 1847) and whose person there are numerous legends."

- Klaus-Peter Walter

Life

Seckel Löb Wormser was the son of the Michelstadt cloth merchant Matthes and Sorle. One of his ancestors was the "Wormser Baalschem" Elias Loanz (1564–1636). In 1808 he chose the family name "Wormser" after him.

Wormser was trained to be a businessman. He received Talmud lessons from the Chasan .

At the end of 1783 he went to Frankfurt to attend the yeshiva of the Kabbalist Nathan Adler . He stayed there for five years and began studying Kabbalah, among other things.

In 1789 he married Adelheid Reiss, daughter of the Frankfurt merchant Eisik Reiss. In the same year he returned to his father's house in Michelstadt. There he ran a yeshiva. By 1800 he had about 70 students. In addition to rabbinical writings, he studied Schelling's philosophy and pedagogy. In 1789 he took a vow of asceticism, lived Hasidic , renounced hair and beard shears, and was strictly vegetarian , both of which are said to have later led to "considerable" tension in his community. Since 1803 there have been lawsuits and judgments against him for unauthorized exercise of office as a rabbi. Because of this - and because of his Kabbalistic religiosity - he came into competition with the Chasan and in conflict with the community.

A statement of reasons for the ban on rabbinical activity of April 3, 1811 stated:

“The supplicant may well have the knowledge necessary to carry out the rabbi business, in that it cannot be denied that he runs a considerable library and has the reputation of a Jewish scholar. Experience has shown, however, that whenever he interferes in Jewish religious affairs, his Cabalist enthusiasm created divisions, disagreements and disorder among the Jews, so that he received several police corrections. "

After the death of his wife in 1809, Wormser moved to Mannheim in 1810 . He established his reputation as a miracle worker (“Baalschem”) by healing a mentally ill sixteen year old. He married Hanna Belzinger from Mannheim (who some sources identify as the healed woman).

Wormser then returned to Michelstadt. Numerous help seekers followed his call as a miracle worker. By means of a rescript dated December 21, 1811, he was allowed to “perform the duties of a rabbi” in Michelstadt and in the Odenwald towns of Bad König , Beerfelden , Franconian-Crumbach and Reichelsheim . In 1823 he was recognized as a district rabbi of the Odenwald communities ( County of Erbach ). He received numerous donations, mainly from Frankfurt and Mannheim, with which he financed charity initiatives as well as his yeshiva and their students. Later he was able to employ Bär Feuchtwanger as a second Talmud teacher.

In 1825, his house and the extensive library were destroyed in a fire.

Rabbi Seckel Löb Wormser had 15 children from two marriages:

Seckel Löb Wormser (1768 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - 13 September 1847 Michelstadt (Odenwald))

First marriage: Adelheid Reiss (1760 Frankfurt - 1808 Michelstadt Odenwald; ⚭ 1790)

  • Jakob Hirsch Wormser (1794 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - 1838); ⚭ Bohnle Grünbaum
    • Adelheid Wormser (born December 17, 1817 Michelstadt (Odenwald)); ⚭ Emanuel Morgenthau
    • Matthäus Wormser (born 1822 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
    • Feistel Wormser (born February 29, 1824 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Gnendel Wormser (1800 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - 1878); ⚭ Eliyahu / Elias Strauss (born in Michelstadt (Odenwald))
    • Schmuel / Samuel Straus (October 2, 1843 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - January 1904 Karlsruhe); ⚭ Isabella Feuchtwanger (June 13, 1853 Munich - April 5, 1893 Karlsruhe)
      • Gertrude Straus
      • Isaac Straus
      • Gabor Straus
      • Judith Straus
      • Fanny Straus
      • Albert Straus
      • Elias Straus
      • Adelheid Straus
      • Raphael Straus

2nd marriage: Johanna Benzinger (1789 Mannheim - 1852)

  • Jaidel Wormser (born October 9, 1817 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Michael Wormser (born 1819 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Meier Wormser (born 1822 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Simon Wormser (born January 18, 1824 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Wolf Raphael Wormser (May 9, 1825 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - March 1892 Michelstadt (Odenwald))
  • Isaac Wormser (May 19, 1826 Michelstadt (Odenwald) - January 1894 Cleveland, Ohio); ⚭ Hannah Emrich (1827–1911 Cleveland, Ohio; 1850 to USA)
    • Moses Wormser
    • Leopold Wormser
    • Bertha Wormser
    • Esther Wormser
    • Adaline Wormser
    • Amelia M. Wormser
  • Abraham Wormser (born September 14, 1829 Michelstadt (Odenwald); died New York)

Legends

In the population he was preceded by reports of his “miracles” as the ruler of occult powers, which led to the name Baal Shem of Michelstadt , based on Baal Shem Tov, and soldiers of different religious affiliations before their transport to the front during the First World War prompted to pray at his grave in the Jewish cemetery in Michelstadt. It is said that all of them returned from the war. He always denied the possession of “supernatural powers”, but sometimes he also helped those seeking advice and help with amulets . The sources say, for example, of his extraordinary success in treating lunar sickness . His alleged miracles were long remembered in southern Hesse .

The following report testifies to the great popularity and sympathy at his death:

“The general admiration and love in which he stood here and in the surrounding area was proven by his funeral ceremony , in which there was certainly a very rare attendance, because over eight hundred different denominations joined the funeral procession. The evening before and at dawn one could see friends and admirers of the deceased pouring in from all sides, sometimes from a considerable distance.
In addition to high-ranking members of the Israelite community, two local Protestant clergymen followed, the clergy from Erbach, many foreign Israelite teachers and the teachers of the local secondary and city schools. His eminence, the ruling Count of Erbach-Fürstenau, had the grace to show his respect for the deceased by means of a deputation, which the district administrator, the local councilor and local councilors now joined. "

- Article in the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums of October 18, 1847

Honors

orthography
Memorial plaque on the house at Erbacher Straße 12 in Michelstadt, where SL Wormser lived from 1826 until his death in 1847.

In 1908 the rabbi was honored with a plaque on his former home.

Is named after him and the old pear variety Seckel Loeb bulb that found with immigrants the way across the Atlantic and there in the United States today than Seckelpear is known.

His grave was desecrated by the Nazis and after the World War u. a. Partly renovated by descendants. The original tombstone is lost. There are photographs of this. The grave is still widely visited.

literature

  • Literature by and about Seckel Löb Wormser in the catalog of the German National Library
  • Michael Wormser: The life and work of Rabbi Seckel Löb Wormser, who died in Michelstadt. 1853 (incompletely preserved biography of his son).
  • Arthur Kahn: An unsolved riddle , a story based on a true incident in 8 sequels in the Sabbath Hours , the illustrated feuilleton supplement to the 'Jewish Press'. , Issue 1–8, Berlin, 1893.
  • Judäus (d. I. Dr. Herz Ehrmann): Cultural-historical narrative - The Baal Schem of Michelstadt. 1907, Frankfurt am Main 1913, 1922 ( digitized in the Freimann Collection ).
  • Mathilde Meier: The stories of the miracle rabbi of Michelstadt. Neuthor, Michelstadt 1982, ISBN 3-88758-009-5 .
  • Izrael Günzig : The "miracle men" in the Jewish people, their lives and doings. Delplace, Koch & Co., Antwerp 1921 ( digitized in Freimann collection ).
  • Franz Babinger in: Hessian biographies. Volume II, 1924, p. 171 ff.
  • Jewish Lexicon. Volume IV, 2nd edition, Berlin 1927–1930, with portrait.
  • Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Czernowitz 125–1931, Volume VI, p. 329 f.
  • Jakob Lebermann: The Darmstadt State Rabbinate . In: Yearbook of the Jewish-Literary Society in Frankfurt am Main. XX, Frankfurt am Main 1929, p. 190 ( digitized in compact memory ).
  • David Hallahmi: Hachmē Yiśrā'el. 'Änsīqlōpädyāh ligedōlē Yiśrā'el bedōrōth hā'aharōnīm. Tel Aviv 1958, p. 277 f.
  • Rahel Straus : We lived in Germany. Memories of a German Jewess 1880–1933. DVA , Stuttgart 1961 (2nd and 3rd edition 1962).
  • Eli Straus: A family tree of our family. In: Bulletin of the Leo Baeck Institute. 6, No. 21-24, Frankfurt am Main 1963, pp. 52-66.
  • Paul Arnsberg : The Baalschem of Michelstadt. In: General Jewish weekly newspaper. February 16, 1968.
  • Paul Arnsberg: The Jewish communities in Hesse. Beginning, fall, new beginning. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971, ISBN 3-7973-0213-4 , Volume I, SS 59, 298, 370, Volume II, pp. 73, 78ff, 210.
  • Gerschom Scholem : The last Kabbalists in Germany. In: The same: Judaica 3. Studies on Jewish mysticism. Frankfurt am Main 1970, 2nd edition 1977, p. 226 f.
  • W. Stern: The Baal Shem of Michelstadt. In: General Jewish weekly newspaper. November 30, 1973.
  • Martin Schmall: Seckel-Löb Wormser, the Baalschem of Michelstadt. In: The same: The Jews in Michelstadt, 1658–1942. Michelstadt 1978, pp. 54-62.
  • Raphael Halperin: 'Atlās' Es Hayyīm: Sedär ha-dōrōth lehachmē Yiśrā'el. Vol. IX ('Aharōnīm IIIb) Ha-dōrōth ha-ri' šōnīm šäl te qūfath ha-h asīdūth, 5520-5610 (1760-1850). Jerusalem 1982, p. 162.
  • Raphael Straus: The Baal-Shem of Michelstadt. Mesmerism and Cabbala. In: Kabbalah and Romance. Tübingen 1994, pp. 207-217.
  • On Wormser in general, cf. the headword by Gershom Scholem in the Encyclopaedia Judaica Volume 16, Jerusalem 1971, Sp. 197/198.
  • Karl Erich Grözinger : Seckel Löw Wormser - the Ba'al Schem of Michelstadt - On the 150th day of his death , in: Aschkenas 10/2000, no. 1, pp. 157-175
  • Karl Erich Grözinger: The Ba'al Schem of Michelstadt and the Frankfurt Kabbalists. In: Menora, year book for German-Jewish history. 1996, pp. 324-340.
  • Karl Erich Grözinger: Between miracles and science - the Ba'al Schem from Michelstadt. In: Frankfurter Jüdische Nachrichten . No. 94/95, October 1997.
  • Karl Erich Grözinger: The Ba'al Schem of Michelstadt. A German-Jewish saint's life between legend and reality. With a reprint of the legends from the hand of Judaeus and Arthur Kahn. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-593-39282-0 ( [1] digitized version).
  • Entry WORMSER, Seckel Löb. In: Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (editors), edited by Carsten Wilke : Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781–1871. K G Saur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-24871-7 , p. 921 f.

Web links

Commons : Seckel Löb Wormser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c On the death of Rabbi Isaak Löb (Seckel Löb) Wormser (1847). In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums . October 18, 1847, Retrieved November 18, 2019 (reproduced in Alemannia Judaica ).
  2. ^ Ellen Wormser: Notes for a Family History. December 16, 1988, p. 16 , accessed on November 18, 2019 (English, also as a PDF file , 1.3 MB; reproduced on archive.org).
  3. ^ First sentence of the foreword by Klaus-Peter Walter, editor of Ein Unsoles Rätsel. Arthur Khan: Deutsche Geschichte (n) , Volume 9. Neuthor-Verlag Michelstadt, 1993, ISBN 3-88758-054-0 .
  4. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica , Vol. 2, Jerusalem 1971, Col. 284-285.
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1. p. 922.
  6. ↑ Kirsten Serup-Bilfeldt: A thousand years of Ba'al Shem. (mp3 audio, 35.3 MB, 37:52 minutes, from minute 17:53, to Seckel Löb Wormser from minute 25:07) In: WDR-5 broadcast “Diesseits von Eden”. November 17, 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 .
  7. ^ Deutsche Geschichte (n) , Volume 9. Neuthor-Verlag, Michelstadt 1993, ISBN 3-88758-054-0 , p. 3, note 1.


Coordinates: 49 ° 40 ′ 36.4 ″  N , 9 ° 0 ′ 21 ″  E

personal data
SURNAME Wormser, Seckel Löb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wormser, Isaak Löb; Rabbi Jizchok Arje; Wormser, Isac Löw Matthes (full name); Miracle rabbi of Michelstadt; Baal Schem from Michelstadt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1768
PLACE OF BIRTH Michelstadt
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1847
Place of death Michelstadt