Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The lectures and responsibilities of Central European rabbinic luminaries described in an English journal.

Here's a really interesting letter that was printed in the August 3, 1860 issue of the Hebrew Review. The writer, who coyly signed Emet (which is no doubt an allusion to his name, which is not known to me) writes about "the so-titled "rev. gentleman," that is, the rabbis, who are haughty and insufficiently charitable. He unfavorably compares them with "some departed luminaries of this [19th] century," whom he personally knew, namely the Chavos Daas, R.Akiva Eger, R. Mordechai Benet and the Chasam Sofer. He describes the shiurim they gave, they piskei halacha and disputes they resolved, and their involvement in tending to the ill and the departed. In addition, they had reply to queries from government authorities and be a father figure to their students. He then suggests what these same British rabbis might do, what course of Torah study they might offer for the youth, and gives a little story about a Christian clergyman whom they might learn from. Finally, he kindly remarks that he doesn't mean any one in particular, any one may seem themselves as an exception, but some might recognize themselves and receive his mussar.



13 comments:

  1. Emet is usually Aaron Margolis

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    1. http://www.virtualjudaica.com/Item/10625/Mishpete_Emet

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  2. Thanks! Sounds like he lived in England; is that so?

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  3. I dont know much about him other than he translated Western works from several languages into Heberw.

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  4. 1) Not that it can't be Margolis, but have you no doubt that it is an allusion to the author's name? Maybe he simply didn't want to disclose his identity hence signed off with something that he is demonstrating in his article.

    2) I wonder who's schedule he is relaying. Maybe it's just a combination of them all?

    3) What does he mean "another ש"ע מגן אברהם" - "another CLASS of "ש"ע מגן אברהם"?

    4) Why is there no mention of the afternoon period of the rabbis' schedule? It doesn't seem that that is when they attended to their other responsibilities as "father figures".

    5) Do you know where the central distribution for this periodical was and who were their main readership?

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  5. 1) Have I no doubt? Of course I have doubts. I don't even know Margolis' age or biography at the moment. Furthermore, in Zeitlin's Taalumos Sofrim pamphlet he lists another who used Emet. As I said in the post though, I have a hunch this is an allusion to the writer's name - even if it is a one-off communication rather than a regular nom de plume.

    2) As for the schedule, I also thought it was a combination of them. The Chasam Sofer's schedule is described in some detail in the biographies.

    3) Probably.

    4) Maybe the afternoons were when they learned privately, or wrote their teshuvos, or took their naps.

    5) London. This periodical lasted for under two years. It was founded by Marcus Henry Bresslau, former editor of the Jewish Chronicle. It consciously styled itself as a revival of a very similar periodical from the 1830s by the same name, which had been founded by Morris J. Raphall, then secretary to Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschel, later an American rabbi. The purpose of this magazine was to publish translations of various interesting portions of classic rabbinic literature (the subtitle was "and Magazine for Rabbinical Literature"; it also had the Hebrew title "Hameasseph"). The audience would have been intelligent and learned, or somewhat learned, Jews in England.

    Read the entire run of it here.

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    1. Correction: **why** do you have no doubt?

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    2. I used "no doubt" in the sense of "probably, likely, I have a hunch," not in the literal sense, that I have no doubt. This was the style of the era. People picked nom de plumes in a clever way. I would say that it is more probable that Emet was an allusion to his name (and, of course, the meaning of the term) then only Truth.

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  6. see here that it is likely he was born in minsk:
    http://aleph.nli.org.il/F/MNKBEGHFFBIUR8JXPQ4FSJ8G4F97H22TXV3U7H34NKN1QBYCF9-62014?func=accref&acc_sequence=000022971

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  7. And published in Warsaw, and died in Kovno. How does he come to know the Moravian and Hungarian rabbis? Possible, but still. And remember, it's not only spending time in London, but having a very good writing English. The only thing likely about him as a candidate is his date of birth. Plus, it seems that he really signed "Ish Emet."

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  8. And published in Vienna, looks like he traveled a lot.

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  9. The laudatory description of Dr. Sachs would fit perfectly with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks! It would be quite interesting if there were a family relation.

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