Samson Raphael Hirsch

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (June 20, 1808 - December 31, 1888) was the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed neo-Orthodoxy, his philosophy, together with that of Ezriel Hildesheimer, has had a considerable influence on the development of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Themes in his work

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 assimilation and a call for reform. A large segment of his work focusses on the possibilities for Orthodox Judaism in such an era, when religious freedom also meant the freedom to practice Torah precepts without persecution and ridicule.

Related Topics:
Napoleon - Europe - Reform - Orthodox Judaism - Religious freedom - Torah

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The principle of "Austritt", an independent Orthodoxy, flows naturally from his view on the place of Judaism in his epoch: if Judaism is to gain from these civil liberties, it has to be able to develop independently - without having to lend implicit or explicit approval to efforts at reformation.

Related Topics:
Orthodoxy - Judaism - Efforts at reformation

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Hirsch' polemical work was almost completely dedicated to the defense of the views described above.

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His other major work involves the symbolic meaning of many Torah commandments and passages. Indeed, his work "Horeb" (1837) focuses to a large degree on the possible meanings and symbols in religious precepts. This work was continued in his Torah commentary and his articles in the Jeschurun journal (Collected Writings, vol. III, is a collation of these articles).

Related Topics:
Symbolic - Torah - 1837

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A final area of his work, which has only recently been rediscovered, was his etymological analysis of the Hebrew language. Most of this work is contained in his Torah commentary, where he analyses and compares the shorashim (three-letter root forms) of a large number of Hebrew words and develops an etymological system of the Hebrew language. Although this effort was, in his own words, "totally unscientific", it has led to the recent publication of an "etymological dictionary of the Hebrew language" (Clark 2000).

Related Topics:
Hebrew language - Torah

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Although Hirsch does not mention his influences (apart from traditional Jewish sources), later authors have identified ideas from the Kuzari (Yehuda Halevi) and the Maharal of Prague in his works. Nevertheless, most of his ideas are probably original.

Related Topics:
Kuzari - Yehuda Halevi - Maharal of Prague

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