Rare Letter in Hebrew[!] by the Glory of German Jewry, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Just a Few Years after ...

Rare Letter in Hebrew[!] by the Glory of German Jewry, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Just a Few Years after Beginning to Serve in the Rabbinate of Frankfurt am Main

"Indeed, at this time, when Hashem has mercifully begun to diminish the dark clouds, who has until now brought his sun at midday ..."

Letter with close to [100] words in the penmanship and with the full signature of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, rabbi of the Adath Jeshurun community in Frankfurt am Main. Sent to "the magnificent rabbi" Rabbi Moshe Engel. Frankfurt am Main, [10 Cheshvan] 1853. Most of Rabbi Shamson Raphael Hirsch's writings were written in German, hence his letters written in Hebrew are very rare and sought-after.

At the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes that he is happy to hear that "Hashem has shone his kindness upon [you], to quiet the fight and plant peace, " and he requests that to this purpose, the addressee bring a letter to Rabbi Avraham Plotshak, av beit din of Boskowitz and chief rabbi of Moravia.

Just three years before writing this letter, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch relocated from the rabbinate in Moravia, with 40,000 Jews, to the rabbinate of the small community known as Adath Jeshurun, which at the time consisted of only eleven families. The historic Frankfurt community began to suffer from a deep rift between the remnants of the old Orthodox community who opposed Reform, and the majority in the Frankfurt community, who tended towards the Reform, and the other part, the more Orthodox, who advocated a quiet relationship between the streams.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch himself hints to this in his letter: "Indeed, at this time, when Hashem has mercifully begun to diminish the dark clouds, who has until now brought his sun at midday, open [your] eyes to balance [your] words and [your] ways [...] with understanding to not stumble more, heaven forbid, with grumbling and tempestuous words. May [your] peace and welfare increase [signed], Samson son of ... Raphael Hirsch, Frankfurt ..."

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

[1] leaf paper, folded and sent in the mail. Approximately 23x21.5 cm.

Fine condition. Fold marks with damage to individual words. Tear with lack in the right hand margin and a perforation at the bottom of the leaf (far from the text), restored with paper completions. The leaf has been professionally restored.