Samuel Holdheim - at Rabbinical Conferences and His Sudden Death

At Rabbinical Conferences and His Sudden Death

Holdheim took part in the rabbinical conferences at Braunschweig (1844), Frankfurt am Main (1845), and Breslau (1846). The stand taken by the last with regard to the Sabbath did not satisfy him. He rightly held it to be a weak compromise. For him the essential element of a true Sabbath was not worship, but rest (see his Offene Briefe über die Dritte Rabbinerversammlung, in Israelit, 1846, Nos. 46-48). The debates at these conferences had touched on vital subjects. Holdheim felt prompted to treat some of these at greater length, and therefore in quick succession he published the following essays: Was Lehrt das Rabbinische Judenthum über den Eid? 1844; Ueber Auflösbarkeit der Eide, Hamburg, 1845; Vorschläge zu einer Zeitgemässen Reform der Jüdischen Ehegesetze, Schwerin, 1845; Die Religiöse Stellung des Weiblichen Geschlechts im Talmudischen Judenthum, ib. 1846; Prinzipien eines dem Gegenwärtigen Religionsbewusstsein Entsprechenden Cultus, 1846.

Holdheim, consulted among others when the Jüdische Reformgenossenschaft was founded in Berlin, was called to be its rabbi and preacher in 1847. As leader of the Reformgenossenschaft he had a share in the editing of its prayer-book. He instituted the radical rejection of keeping Saturday as the Jewish Sabbath, and instead moved its observance to Sunday to keep the behavior of Reform Jews in line with Christian thought. Under his rule the observance of the second days of the holy days (except the second day of Rosh ha-Shanah) were abolished.

He officiated at so-called "mixed" marriages (see his Gemischte Ehen Zwischen Juden und Christen, Berlin, 1850). He had to defend his congregation against many attacks (see his Das Gutachten des Herrn L. Schwab, Rabbiner zu Pesth, ib. 1848). Though engaged in many ways in the development of his society and in the organization of its institutions, during the thirteen years of his stay in Berlin he wrote a text for schools on the religious and moral doctrines of the Mishnah (Berlin, 1854), a criticism of Stahl (Ueber Stahl's Christliche Toleranz, ib. 1856), and a catechism (Jüdische Glaubens-und Sittenlehre, ib. 1857). He also wrote a history of the Reformgenossenschaft (Gesch. der Jüdischen Reformgemeinde, 1857) and a more ambitious work (in Hebrew) on the rabbinical and Karaite interpretations of the marriage laws (Ma'amar ha-Ishut, 1860).

Holdheim died suddenly at Berlin on August 22, 1860. Sachs objected to his interment in the row reserved for rabbis in the Jewish cemetery, but Oettinger granted permission for the burial. Holdheim was laid to rest among the great dead of the Berlin congregation, Abraham Geiger preaching the funeral oration.