Samson Raphael Hirsch

Samson Raphael Hirsch (20 June 1808 – 31 December 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi who founded the Torah im Derech Eretz approach within Orthodox Judaism, sometimes called neo-Orthodoxy. His ideas, along with those of Azriel Hildesheimer, significantly shaped modern Orthodox Judaism.

Hirsch served as a rabbi in Oldenburg and Emden, later becoming chief rabbi of Moravia. From 1851 until his death, he led a secessionist Orthodox community in Frankfurt am Main. He wrote influential books and edited the monthly journal *Jeschurun*, where he laid out his Jewish philosophy. He strongly opposed Reform Judaism and early Conservative Judaism.

Born in Hamburg, then part of Napoleonic France, Hirsch was the son of merchant Raphael Arye Hirsch, who devoted much time to Torah study. His grandfather, Mendel Frankfurter, founded Talmud Torah schools in Hamburg and served as an unpaid assistant rabbi in Altona. His granduncle, Yehudah Leib Frankfurter Shapira, authored Hebrew works, including the Torah commentary *Harechasim le-Bik'ah*.

Hirsch studied under Chacham Isaac Bernays, whose biblical and Talmudic teaching led him to choose the rabbinate over his parents’ wish for him to become a merchant. He studied Talmud in Mannheim under Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger from 1828 to 1829, receiving ordination from him in 1830 at age 22. He then attended the University of Bonn alongside his future opponent, Abraham Geiger.

In 1830, Hirsch was elected chief rabbi of the Principality of Oldenburg. There he wrote *Neunzehn Briefe über Judenthum* (Nineteen Letters on Judaism), published under the pseudonym Ben Usiel in 1836. The work impressed German Jewish circles as a brilliant, intellectual defense of Orthodox Judaism in classic German. It influenced the young Heinrich Graetz, who lived at Hirsch’s home in Oldenburg from 1837 to 1840 as a pupil and assistant. In 1838, Hirsch published *Horeb, oder Versuche über Jissroel's Pflichten in der Zerstreuung*, a textbook for educated Jewish youth, written before the *Letters* but published later due to publishers’ doubts about its market. He also issued polemical essays in 1839 and 1844 against reforms proposed by Geiger and others.

Hirsch moved to Emden in 1841 as chief rabbi of the Hanoverian districts of Aurich and Osnabrück. During this five-year post, communal work left little time for writing, but he founded a secondary school combining Jewish and secular studies, first applying his motto Torah im Derech Eretz. In 1843, he applied for the post of Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, reaching a shortlist of four candidates. Nathan Marcus Adler won the position with 121 votes, while Hirsch received only two.

In 1846, Hirsch became rabbi of Nikolsburg in Moravia, and in 1847, chief rabbi of Moravia and Austrian Silesia. He spent five years reorganizing Jewish congregations and teaching many students. As chief rabbi, he served in the Moravian Landtag, advocating for more civil rights for Jews. In Moravia, he faced criticism from Reform-minded Jews and from traditional Orthodox elements who found some of his reforms too radical. He emphasized deep study of the entire...