Tuesday, December 18, 2012
An English elegy on the death of the much Lamented Death of R. Nosson Adler's rebbe
Here's a fantastic item. This sheet is what it says it is: an elegy printed upon the death of R. David Tevele Schiff, Chief Rabbi of the Duke's Place Synagogue in London. As the post title indicates, R. Tevele Schiff was the rabbi of R. Nosson Adler, who was of course the revered rebbe of the Chasam Sofer.
This ephemeral piece is reproduced from Arthur B. Hyman's A collection of Anglo-Jewish ephemera in Jewish Historical Studies, Vol. 33, (1992-1994), pp. 97-123:
I assume you posted this on December 18 because it was delivered on that day.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the poem was originally drafted for the occasion, or if it was an existing poem into which they just inserted his name. The content of the poem isn't very specific to Rabbi Schiff.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what kind of middle name Tevele is, and assumed it was a variant of Tuvia. Is it really a form of Solomon?
Scratch that...now I realize it's probably a form of David.
ReplyDeleteRight.
DeleteSolomon was his father - this was a custom common in some parts of Germany and Holland, like Samson Raphael for Hirsch, Nathan Marcus for Adler - all of his kids used Nathan as middles names, etc.
My guess is that this *was* written on the occasion, it's just not very good.
S. maybe it's worthwhile noting there is some discrepancy about the exact yom ha'misa as Hyman himself pointed out. As the post shows, it was Dec. 18 1791 whereas others thought it to be a day later, but I'm sure your aware of the suggested reconciliation so I'll leave out the details. This guy too -
ReplyDeletehttp://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/2012/12/this-day-december-17-in-jewish-history.html
@ 1791 noted it was 21 Kislev. I wonder why the testimony of Reb Schiff's nephew wouldn't suffice when he says here -
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=19232&st=&pgnum=4
(s.v. va'yehi) his uncle was niftar on 23 Kislev, 5552 [assuming it's a play-on words and an intentional 'beis' not a 'kof' as spelled in the passuk], which would render the Wiki entry for "Tevele Schiff" inaccurate. (On a dif, topic; can anyone who does open the sefer kindly look a page earlier (s.v. ha'ira) and explain why he abbreviated R' Yechezkel (Noda BeYehuda) as "MaHaRIaCH" and not just the much more common "MaHaRI"? Was it his way of shortening it or was a name ever added?)
You are definitely eagle-eyed - but my inclination is to assume that he abbreviated that way for no special reason. Even if a name was added, it seems to me that would have remained largely unknown and unacknowledged, certainly not likely to become part of the way someone would have abbreviated him. Would be more conclusive if his name wasn't Yechezkel of course. Yechezkel Chaim? Interesting idea.
DeleteThere were TWO R. Nosson Adler's. The one from England,better known as Rabbi Nathan Adler, was unrelated to the chasam sofer.
ReplyDeleteOf course. But he wasn't mentioned in this post - although he was the great-grandson of R. Nathan Adler and even named for him.
DeleteI was under the assumption that Rav Nosson Adler only had daughters.
DeleteSorry, I was not writing carefully - I meant great-nephew. R. Nathan Marcus Adler's father's father was a brother of R. Nathan Adler of Frankfurt.
Delete