Background
Samson Raphael Hirsch was born on June the 20th, 1808 Hamburg, Germany. His father, though a merchant, devoted much of his time to Torah studies.
Samson Raphael Hirsch was born on June the 20th, 1808 Hamburg, Germany. His father, though a merchant, devoted much of his time to Torah studies.
Hirsch was a pupil of Chacham Isaac Bernays, and the Biblical and Talmudical education which he received, combined with his teacher's influence, led him to determine not to become a merchant, as his parents had desired, but to choose the rabbinical vocation. In furtherance of this plan, he studied Talmud from 1828 to 1829 in Mannheim under Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger. He then entered the University of Bonn, where he studied at the same time as his future antagonist, Abraham Geiger.
In 1830, Hirsch was elected chief rabbi (Landesrabbiner) of the principality of Oldenburg. During this period, he wrote his Neunzehn Briefe über Judenthum, (Nineteen Letters on Judaism) which were published, under the pseudonym of "Ben Usiel" (or "Uziel"), at Altona in 1836.
In 1838, Hirsch published, as a necessary concomitant of the Letters, his Horeb, oder Versuche über Jissroel's Pflichten in der Zerstreuung, which is a text-book on Judaism for educated Jewish youth.
In 1839, he published Erste Mittheilungen aus Naphtali's Briefwechsel, a polemical essay against the reforms in Judaism proposed by Geiger and the contributors to the latter's Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für jüdische Theologie (such as Michael Creizenach) and in 1844, he published Zweite Mittheilungen aus einem Briefwechsel über die Neueste Jüdische Literatur, also polemical in tendency and attacking Holdheim's Die Autonomie der Rabbinen (1843).
Hirsch remained in Oldenburg until 1841, when he was elected chief rabbi of the Hanoverian districts of Aurich and Osnabrück, with his residence in Emden. During this five-year post, he was taken up almost completely by communal work, and had little time for writing.
In 1843, Hirsch applied for the post of Chief Rabbi of the British Empire. Out of 13 candidates, mostly from Germany, he reached the short list of four: Nathan Marcus Adler, Hirsch Hirschfeld, Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach, and Hirsch. Adler won the position on December 1, 1844. With 135 communities having one vote each, Adler received 121 votes, Hirschfeld 12, and Hirsch 2.
In 1846, Hirsch was called to the rabbinate of Nikolsburg in Moravia, and in 1847, he became chief rabbi of Moravia and Austrian Silesia. In Austria, he spent five years in the re-organization of the Jewish congregations and the instruction of numerous disciples, he was also, in his official capacity as chief rabbi, a member of the Moravian Landtag, where he campaigned for more civil rights for Jews in Moravia.
In 1851, he accepted a call as rabbi of an Orthodox separatist group in Frankfurt am Main, a part of the Jewish community of which had otherwise largely accepted classical Reform Judaism. This group, known as the "Israelite Religious Society" became, under his administration, a great congregation, numbering about 500 families. Hirsch remained rabbi of this congregation for the rest of his life. During the final years of his life, Hirsch put his efforts in the founding of the "Freie Vereinigung für die Interessen des Orthodoxen Judentums", an association of independent Jewish communities. During the 30 years after his death, this organization would be used as a model for the formation of the international Orthodox Agudas Yisrael movement.
Hirsch died in 1888 in Frankfurt am Main, and is buried there.
Samson Raphael Hirsch considered the differences between liberal and Orthodox Jews greater than those between Protestants and Catholics, and accordingly encouraged the secession of the Orthodox from the general Jewish community where that community was predominantly Reform.
Judaism to Hirsch is a historic phenomenon that must be understood according to its own source - the Torah. Nothing matters outside the Torah, which is not intended to prove philosophical truths but rather to lay down the law to be observed. From the Torah is to be learned the true nature of man. The commandments bring the Jew to the highest stage of perfection, of which the ideal type is the Yisraelmensch, that is, the law-observing Jew. The laws he divided into six categories: doctrines (the historically revealed principles of Jewish faith), principles of justice governing conduct toward one’s fellowman, statutes (laws whose motivation is not readily seen but which bring justice to all creation), symbolic observances that ennoble the life of man, and worship in all its forms. The Torah, he claimed was given in the desert to show that nationhood does not depend on nation orsoil. The Land of Israel had "seduced the Jewish people from its allegiance to God." Judaism is nothing more than a religious sect. Israel had a spiritual mission until humanity as a whole would turn to God. At the same time he wrote, "The Jewish people, although it carries the Torah throughout the Diaspora, will only find its table and lamp in the Holy Land."
Quotations:
We live in a divine world.
It you are truly a Jew, you will be respected because of it, not in spite of it.
A life of isolation, devoted only to prayer and meditation, is not Jewish.
Israel’s mission is to teach the nations of the world that God is the source of all blessing.
Join a community - only in this way can your work be made universal and eternal.
The highest ideal of Judaism is the universal brotherhood of man.