Самсон Рафаэль Хирш: Жизнь и учение ортодоксального раввина.

19th century German Jewish theologian
Hirsch was rabbi in Oldenburg, Emden, and was subsequently appointed chief rabbi of Moravia. From 1851 until his death, Hirsch led the secessionist Orthodox community in Frankfurt am Main. He wrote a number of influential books, and for a number of years published the monthly journal Jeschurun, in which he outlined his philosophy of Judaism. He was a vocal opponent of Reform Judaism, Zionism, and similarly opposed early forms of Conservative Judaism.

Hirsch was born in Hamburg, which was then a part of Napoleonic France. His father, Raphael Arye Hirsch, though a merchant, devoted much of his time to Torah studies; his grandfather, Mendel Frankfurter, was the founder of the Talmud Torah schools in Hamburg and unsalaried assistant rabbi of the neighboring congregation of Altona; and his granduncle, Yehudah Leib (Löb) Frankfurter Shapira (1743 1846), was the author of several Hebrew works, including the Torah commentary Harechasim le Bik'ah (הרכסים לבקעה). Hirsch was a student of Chacham Isaac Bernays, and the Biblical and Talmudical education which he received, combined with his teacher's influence, led him to determine not to become a merchant, as his parents had desired, but to choose the rabbinical vocation. In furtherance of this plan, he studied Talmud from 1828 to 1829 in Mannheim under Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger. He received semicha (ordination) from Rabbi Ettlinger ]]
[[Image:SamsonHirsch1. jpg|thumb|200px|An 1868 illustration." Hirsch's major works are discussed in further detail below. In 1838, Hirsch published, "as a necessary concomitant" of the Letters, his Horeb, oder Versuche über Jissroel's Pflichten in der Zerstreuung, as a text book on Judaism for educated Jewish youth. He had written Horeb first, but his publishers doubted that a work defending traditional Judaism would find a market in those times with reform in vogue.

In 1846, Hirsch was called to the rabbinate of Nikolsburg in Moravia, and in 1847, he became chief rabbi of Moravia and Austrian Silesia. In Austria, he spent five years in the re organization of the Jewish congregations and the instruction of numerous disciples; he was also, in his official capacity as chief rabbi, a member of the Moravian Landtag, where he campaigned for more civil rights for Jews in Moravia.

Hirsch's Nineteen Letters on Judaism (Neunzehn Briefe über Judenthum), published in 1836 under the pseudonym "Ben Uziel", offered an intellectual presentation of Orthodox Judaism in classical German and a "fearless, uncompromising defense" of all its institutions and ordinances. (See under Oldenburg above.) It was written in the form of a fictional correspondence between a young rabbi/philosopher and a youthful intellectual. The first letter, the intellectual's, outlines the challenges that emancipation created for modern Jews, and questions the continued relevance of Judaism. The rabbi responds in the subsequent letters, discussing, in a structured sequence, God, man, and Jewish history; leading to a discussion of the mitzvot and their classification (as employed in Horeb). The work made a profound impression on German Jewish circles and has been republished and translated several times; it is still influential and often taught.

Rabbi Hirsch left in manuscript at the time of his death a translation and explanation of the prayer book, which was subsequently published. His commentary on Pirkei Avot here, has been republished separately. His commentary on the book of Psalms (Uebersetzung und Erklärung der Psalmen, 1882) is still widely read; it underpins much of his siddur commentary.

Most of Hirsch's writings have been translated into English and Hebrew by his descendants, starting with "Horeb" in the 1950s (by Dayan Isidor Grunfeld of London) and his Torah commentary in the 1960s (by his grandson Isaac Levi, also of London). Horeb was translated into Hebrew already in 1892. The publication, in several volumes, of his collected writings (Gesammelte Schriften or Nachalath Zwi) was begun in 1902. and 1960 by Jacob Breuer based on Drachman's translation. The latest translation to English was prepared by Karin Paritzky and revised by Joseph Elias (who states that they "benefited greatly from the two earlier editions"). Elias glosses Breuer's edition as "very readable" while panning it as an achievement reached "by the omission or simplification of a good many passages, so that the reader does not obtain the full meaning that the author intended."

Hirsch lived in the post Napoleonic era, an epoch when Jews had been granted civil rights in a large number of European countries, leading to a call for reform. A large segment of his work focuses on the possibilities for Orthodox Judaism in such an era, when freedom of religion also meant the freedom to practice Torah precepts without persecution and ridicule. Although Hirsch does not mention his influences (apart from traditional Jewish sources), later authors have identified ideas from the Kuzari (Yehuda Halevi), Nahmanides, and the Maharal of Prague in his works. Nevertheless, most of his ideas are original. While the Zionist movement was not founded during his lifetime, it is clear from his responses to Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, and in several places in his commentary to the Bible and Siddur, that although he had a deep love for the Land of Israel, he opposed a movement to wrest political independence for the Land of Israel before the Messianic Era.