Moses Sofer - Influence Against Changes in Judaism

Influence Against Changes in Judaism

The Chasam Sofer led the community of Bratislava for 33 years until his death in 1839. It was his influence and determination that kept the Reform movement out of Bratislava.

From the late 18th century onwards, movements which eventually developed into Reform Judaism began to progress. Synagogues subscribing to these new views began to appear in centres such as Berlin and Hamburg. Sofer was profoundly opposed to the reformers and attacked them in his speeches and writings. For example in a responsum of 1816 he forbade the congregation in Vienna to allow a performance in the synagogue of a cantata they had commissioned from the composer Ignaz Moscheles because it would involve a mixed choir. In the same spirit he also contested the founders of the Reformschule (Reform synagogue) in Bratislava, which was established in the year 1827.

For Sofer, Judaism as previously practiced was the only form of Judaism acceptable. In his view the rules and tenets of Judaism never changed — and cannot ever change. This became the defining idea for the opponents to Reform, and in some form, it has continued to influence Orthodox response to innovation in Jewish doctrine and practice.

Sofer, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox community in Pressburg was a pupil of Rabbi Nathan Adler of Frankfurt who was a master of Kabbalah as well as a pupil of Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz of Frankfurt, a renowned Talmudist. Thus Sofer was respected by the Hasidim and Misnagdim alike.

Sofer applied a pun to the Talmudic term chodosh asur min haTorah, "'new' is forbidden by the Torah" (referring literally to eating chodosh, "new grain", before the Omer offering is given) as a slogan heralding his opposition to any philosophical, social or practical change to customary Orthodox practice. Thus, he did not allow any secular studies to be added to the curriculum of his Pressburg Yeshiva. Sofer's most notable student Rabbi Moshe Shic together with Sofer's sons Rabbis Shimon and Samuel Benjamin took an active role in arguing the Reform movement but showed relative tolerance for heterogeneity within the Orthodox camp. Others, such as the more zealous Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein based a more stringent position to orthodoxy.

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

A major historic event which facilitated the redefinition of Judaism was the meltdown after the Universal Israelite Congress of 1868-69 in Pest. In an attempt to unify all streams of Judaism under one constitution, the Orthodox offered the Shulchan Aruch as the ruling code of law and observance. This notation was dismissed by the reformists, leading many Orthodox rabbis to resign from the Congress and form their own social and political groups. Hungarian Jewry split into two major institutionally sectarian groups, Orthodox and Neolog. However, some communities refused to join either of the groups calling themselves Status Quo.

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 and may be seen as a part of the developing rebranding of the traditional Orthodoxy into a self defined group. Rabbi Shimon was nominated as a candidate to the Polish Regional Parliament under the Austraian emperor Franz Joseph. He found favor over his modern counterparts and was elected to the “The Polish Club” in which he took active part until his death.

Shik demonstrated support in 1877 for the separatist policies of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in Germany. Schick's own son was enrolled in the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary that taught secular studies and was headed by Azriel Hildesheimer. Hirsch, however, did not reciprocate and expressed astonishment at Schick’s halakhic contortions in condemning even those Status Quo communities that clearly adhered to halakhah. Lichtenstein opposed Hildesheimer and his son Hirsh as they made use of the German language in sermons from the pulpit and seemed to sway to the direction of Modern Zionism.

Of the notable disciples of the Pressburg Yeshiva who had major influence on mainstream orthodoxy in the Holy Land were; Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (student of Ksav Sofer) who in 1919 united with Rabbi Yitzchok Yerucham Diskin (son of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, from Brisk, Lithuania) to found the Edah HaChareidis in then Mandate Palestine.

In 1932 Sonnefeld was succeeded by Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky (I) a disciple of the Shevet Sofer, one of the grandchildren of the Chasam Sofer. Dushinsky founded the Dushinsky Dynasty based on the teachings of the Chasam Sofer.

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, dwelling in Israel and later in the United States influencing Orthodox Jewry there.