[Avodah] Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Friedrich von Schiller

[Harry Maryles]

--- On Mon, 6/7/10, Yitzchok Levine <Larry.Levine at stevens.edu> wrote:

Please see http://tinyurl.com/2d7r7hr and click on the link there for the pdf file for this article by Marc Shapiro. 

The first paragraph of the article reads

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s philosophy of Torah im Derekh
Erez finds expression in many texts, and these have been available
in English for many years. The one exception is his famous
speech about the Romantic poet, dramatist and historian Friedrich von
Schiller (1759-1805), which until now has not been translated into any
language from its original German.The reasons for the absence of a
translation are not hard to see. For one, R. Hirsch’s attachment to
Schiller has not been shared by more recent generations. Especially in
the post-Holocaust years, R. Hirsch’s great attachment to German culture
would have been very painful for many to see. Also significant is the
fact that a great rabbi could find such spiritual value in writings outside
of the canon of Torah literature. As R. Hirsch’s position in this matter is
so far removed from contemporary Orthodox culture, it has been easier
to ignore what he said, rather than try to come to terms with it.

This article gives a translation of the entire "Schiller Speech."  I think you will find it somewhat surprising when viewed from the perspectives of certain Orthodox circles. 

My understanding is that this speech is to appear in a forthcoming book by Feldheim that will include some other writings of RSRH that were not included in the 8 volumes of The Collected Writing of RSRH. 
------------------------------------
 
Truly an amazing article about an amazing speech given by an amazing man. I wrote about it on my blog today. It remains to be seen whether it will indeed be included in a new book. If it is I wonder how it will be treated in the Yeshiva world. It wouldn't surprise me if it got the MOAG treatment.
 
HM

Want Emes and Emunah in your life? 

Try this: http://haemtza.blogspot.com/




      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20100609/93466401/attachment-0002.htm>