Moses Sofer and Related Topics

Visitors in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Budapest, circa 1920; the word "Orthodox" (ארטאדאקסען) is painted on the wall, second to the left. Traditionalist Jews in Hungary were the first anywhere to use the term "orthodox" in the formation of an independent Orthodox organization in 1871.

Orthodox Judaism

Collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism.

A Jewish man pilloried in the synagogue, a common punishment in the pre-emancipation Jewish community in Europe.

Moses Sofer of Pressburg, considered the father of Orthodoxy in general and ultra-Orthodoxy in particular.

Isaac Bernays in clerical vestments. The ministerial style of dress seen here was ubiquitous among German and Western European (neo)-Orthodox Jews.

David Zvi Hoffmann, the single most prominent Orthodox theoretician who dealt with the critical-historical method.

Young Samson Raphael Hirsch, the ideologue of Orthodox secession in Germany.

Chaim Sofer, the leading halakhic authority of the Hungarian "zealots" during the Orthodox-Neolog schism.

Beth Medrash Govoha (Hebrew:בית מדרש גבוה), in Lakewood, New Jersey, U.S., the world's largest yeshiva outside Israel

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators (over 300,000 took part), protesting for the right of Yeshiva students to avoid conscription to the Israeli Army. Jerusalem, 2 March 2014.

The leader and organizer of the Orthodox camp during the dispute, and the most influential figure in early Orthodoxy, was Rabbi Moses Sofer of Pressburg, Hungary.

Prostějov

City in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic.

Moses Sofer (1762–1839), rabbi

Haredi Jewish men during a Torah reading.

Haredi Judaism (יהדות חֲרֵדִית , ; also spelled Charedi in English; plural Haredim or Charedim) consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to halakha (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to modern values and practices.

Haredi Jews from Galicia at the in Vienna's second district, Leopoldstadt, 1915

Haredi Jewish women and girls in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, 2013

Gender-separate beach in Israel. To accommodate Haredi and other Orthodox Jews, many coastal resorts in Israel have a designated area for sex-separate bathing.

The Bais Yaakov graduating class of 1934 in Łódź, Poland

Tziporah Heller, a weekly columnist for Hamodia

Members of Neturei Karta protest against Israel (Washington, 2005)

Haredi demonstration against the conscription of yeshiva pupils

Hasidim walk to the synagogue, Rehovot, Israel.

Haredi Rabbis and students writing a Torah scroll (Haredi settlement of Beitar Illit, Gush Etzion)

Hasidic family on the street in Borough Park, Brooklyn

Moses Sofer was opposed to any philosophical, social, or practical change to customary Orthodox practice.

Shulchan Aruch

Most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism.

A wealth of later works include commentary and exposition by such halachic authorities as the Ketzoth ha-Choshen and Avnei Millu'im, Netivoth ha-Mishpat, the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (Dagul Mervavah), Rabbis Akiva Eger, Moses Sofer, and Chaim Joseph David Azulai (Birkei Yosef) whose works are widely recognized and cited extensively in later halachic literature.

The main Satmar synagogue in Kiryas Joel, New York

Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)

Hasidic group originating from the city of Satu Mare, Romania, where it was founded in 1905 by Joel Teitelbaum.

Joel Teitelbaum bowing before King Carol II of Romania, 1936

The book Vayoel Moshe, where Teitelbaum lays out his opposition to Zionism.

Rejection of Israel is expressed in a ban of voting or affiliating with the state's institutions. 1955 poster against Israel's Knesset elections.

Entrance of the Satmar Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York

Faced with rapid acculturation and a decline in religious observance, Lichtenstein preached utter rejection of modernity, widely applying the words of his teacher, Moses Sofer: "All that is new is forbidden by the Torah."

Pressburg Yeshiva (Austria-Hungary)

The largest and most influential Yeshiva in Central Europe in the 19th century.

It was founded in the city of Pressburg, Austrian Empire (today Bratislava, Slovakia) by Rabbi Moshe Sofer (known as the Chasam Sofer or Chatam Sofer ) and was considered the largest Yeshiva since the time of the Babylonian Talmud.

Rabbinic literature

Entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history.

Responsa, e.g. by Moses Sofer, Moshe Feinstein

Bratislava

Capital and largest city of Slovakia.

An original Biatec and its replica on a former 5-koruna coin

Bratislava was bombarded by the United States Army Air Forces, during the Nazi Occupation in 1944

The building of National Council of the Slovak Republic

Grassalkovich Palace, seat of the president of Slovakia

Episcopal Summer Palace, the seat of the government of Slovakia

Primate's Palace at Primate's Square, the seat of the city's mayor

High-rise buildings at Mlynské Nivy, one of Bratislava's business districts

Paparazzi statue in Bratislava's Old Town

The earliest known depiction of Pressburg Castle, 14th century

Pressburg (Bratislava) in the 17th century

The Rococo-style "House of the Good Shepherd", home to the Museum of Clocks

Stará Tržnica Market Hall, the oldest indoor market in Bratislava

Danube river and the Slovak National Uprising Bridge

CityShuttle train connects Bratislava with Austria's capital Vienna.

A curiosity is the underground (formerly ground-level) restored portion of the Jewish cemetery where 19th-century Rabbi Moses Sofer is buried, located at the base of the castle hill near the entrance to a tram tunnel.

Boskovice

Town in Blansko District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.

Moses Sofer (1762–1839), one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry

Talmud

Central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology.

An early printing of the Talmud (Ta'anit 9b); with commentary by Rashi

A page of a medieval Jerusalem Talmud manuscript, from the Cairo Geniza

The Talmud on display in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland brings together parts from the first two Talmud prints by Daniel Bomberg and Ambrosius Froben.

A Controversy Whatsoever on Talmud<ref>See Schleicher's paintings at MutualArt.</ref>

Jews studying Talmud, París, c. 1880–1905

Samuel Hirszenberg, Talmudic School, c. 1895–1908

Ephraim Moses Lilien, The Talmud Students, engraving, 1915

Maurycy Trębacz, The Dispute, c. 1920–1940

Solomon's Haggadoth, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem, by Benno Elkan, 1956

Hilel's Teachings, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah

Jewish Mysticism: Jochanan ben Sakkai, bronze relief from the Knesset Menorah

Oz veHadar edition of the first page of the Babylonian Talmud, with elements numbered in a spiraling rainbowː (1) Joshua Boaz ben Simon Baruch's Mesorat haShas, (2) Joel Sirkis's Hagahot (3) Akiva Eiger's Gilyon haShas, (4) Completion of Solomon ben Isaac's commentary from the Soncino printing, (5) Nissim ben Jacob's commentary, (6) Hananel ben Hushiel's commentary, (7) a survey of the verses quoted, (8) Joshua Boaz ben Simon Baruch's Ein Mishpat/Ner Mitzvah, (9) the folio and page numbers, (10) the tractate title, (11) the chapter number, (12), the chapter heading, (13), Solomon ben Isaac's commentary, (14) the Tosafot, (15) the Mishnah, (16) the Gemara, (17) an editorial footnote.

Some Orthodox leaders such as Moses Sofer (the Chatam Sofer) became exquisitely sensitive to any change and rejected modern critical methods of Talmud study.