[Avodah] RSRH - The Gaon in Talmud and Mikra

[Professor L. Levine]

The letter below appears on pages 113 - 114 of this week's Flatbush Jewish Journal.


It is not clear to me that all FJJ readers appreciate the gadlus of Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch when it came to Torah.  Indeed,   last week MW (whomever this may be)  referred to RSRH as "Reb Shamshon Refoel Hirsch" rather than as Rabbi or Rav or even Rabbiner.

Therefore, I feel that I should refer FJJ readers to Rav Yaakov Perlow's article Rav S. R. Hirsch - The Gaon in Talmud and Mikra that appears in The World of Hirschian Teachings, An Anthology on the Hirsch Chumash and the Hashkafa of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, Published for the Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer Foundation, Feldheim, 2008.  Reading this article will give one a true understanding of how great a Torah scholar RSRH was.

Moreover, the following is from page 102 of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Architect of Torah Judaism for the Modern World by Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Klugman.

We also have the assessment of the K’sav Sofer, Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, Rabbi of Pressburg and leader of Hungarian
Jewry. The K'sav Sofer first met Rabbi Hirsch in Vienna, not long after the latter assumed his post in Nikolsburg. On the first Shabbos after his
return to Pressburg, a large crowd came to his home for Shalosh Seudos in order to hear his observations about the new Chief Rabbi. Their
curiosity was understandable, since, as followers of the Chasam Sofer, the K'sav Sofer's father, they harbored deep suspicions of anyone versed in secular studies, which they considered a potent danger to the Jewish people. The K’sav Sofer described his meeting with Rabbi Hirsch in the following terms:

“We spoke at length on Torah subjects with the new ‘Rosh Medinah’ and whatever topic we discussed, his reply showed that he had Shas and
poskim on his fingertips. We, the rabbonim of Hungary, have to consider ourselves very fortunate that he holds us to be his superiors as scholars, for if he were only aware  of the extent of his own scholarship,  we would have no rest from him.”

Finally,  a talmud muvhak of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, ZT"L,  told me that Rav Hunter once told him that anything that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote is Kodesh Kedoshim.

Based on this It should be clear to all that what RSRH wrote about one going to see the wonders of nature is to be taken very seriously.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180607/05f5daba/attachment-0002.htm>