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Shimon Sofer (II)
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Rabbi Shimon Sofer, known as the Michtav Sofer.
Shimon Sofer (II) (1850 – 2 June 1944) was the Rav of the Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
city of Eger
Eger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...
(Erlau) and the progenitor of the Erlauer
Erlau (Hasidic dynasty)
Erlau , also spelled Erloy and Erloi, is a Hasidic dynasty named for the town of Eger, a Hungarian city situated between Miskolc and Pest. During the early Middle Ages the town was named Erlau by the German, Avar, and Slavonic tribes living there...
Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
dynasty. His grandson, Rabbi Yochanan Sofer
Yochanan Sofer
Rabbi Yochanan Sofer is the Rebbe of the Erlau Hasidic dynasty, a small-sized movement in Orthodox Judaism. He was born in Erlau , Hungary, where his father and grandfather served as Grand Rabbis...
, is the present-day Erlauer Rebbe
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
in Israel.
Early life and family
Sofer was one of 10 children born to Rabbi Samuel Benjamin SoferSamuel Benjamin Sofer
Avraham Shmuel Binyomin Sofer, , also known by his main work Ksav Sofer , , was one of the leading rabbis of Hungarian Jewry in the second half of the nineteenth century and rosh yeshiva of the famed Pressburg Yeshiva.-Early years:Shmuel Binyomin Sofer was born in Pressburg on March 13, 1815...
(1815 – 1872), known as the Ksav Sofer. The Ksav Sofer was the son of Rabbi Moses Sofer
Moses Sofer
Moses Schreiber, known to his own community and Jewish posterity as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work Chasam Sofer, , , was one of the leading Orthodox rabbis of European Jewry in the first half of the nineteenth century...
(1762 – 1839), known as the Chasam Sofer, the Rav of Pressburg (present-day Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) and the leading rabbinical figure of Orthodox Judaism in the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
, as well as one of the greatest Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic scholars of his day.
Shimon Sofer studied and lived the early part of his life in Kleinwardein (today Kisvárda
Kisvárda
Kisvárda is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. , the town has around 17,000 inhabitants.-History:Kisvárda was known in the Middle Ages as Warda or Warada...
, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg is an administrative county in north-eastern Hungary, bordering Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Hajdú-Bihar and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén...
county, Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
), a town boasting a large Jewish community. He was a diligent student, completing the Talmudic tractate of Beitzah
Moed
Moed is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people . Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of Moed consists of 12 tractates:# Shabbat: or Shabbath deals with the 39 prohibitions of "work" on the Shabbat...
six times before his bar mitzvah.
In 1870 he he married Esther Fried, daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Fried of Kleinwardein. The couple had a daughter, but Esther died after two years of marriage. In 1874 Sofer married his cousin, Glikle Birnbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Birnbaum of the town of Dubno
Dubno
Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
in western Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Rabbi Birnbaum was the son-in-law of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Sofer's great-grandfather. The couple had a son, Akiva, but divorced soon after his birth.
During this period, Sofer lived both in Uman and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, where he became known as a brilliant Torah scholar. He lived an additional two years in the Polish city of Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, where he studied in the yeshiva of his uncle, also named Rabbi Shimon Sofer, who was (known as the Michtav Sofer after his major work). In approximately 1875, Sofer returned to Pressburg and married yet another cousin, Malka Esther Spitzer, the daughter of Rabbi Zalman Spitzer of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. With Malka, he had 13 children.
Rabbi of Erlau
In 1881, Sofer was appointed Rav of the Hungarian city of EgerEger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...
(Erlau). There he founded a large yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
which was attended by elite Torah scholars from throughout Hungary. This yeshiva became a foundation of the Erlau dynasty, a branch and direct link to the philosophy and teachings of Sofer's grandfather, the Chasam Sofer. Sofer delivered a daily shiur (Torah lecture) in the yeshiva and provided for his students' physical and spiritual needs. He also became a spokesman for Torah Judaism and fought to protect his community from the proponents of Neolog Judaism, a Hungarian reform movement. His fame spread throughout Hungary and he was offered prestigious rabbinical posts in other cities, but he chose to remain in the small community of Erlau, saying that he wished to raise his children away from a "big city atmosphere".
As Sofer aged, one of his sons, Rabbi Moses Sofer (author of Yad Sofer), took on the role of Rav and dayan (rabbinical judge) of the town of Erlau. Rabbi Shimon Sofer was referred to by his congregation with the revered and affectionate title of "Rebbe".
In his old age, Sofer lost his eyesight, and one of his students would read aloud the Talmud with the commentaries of Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
and Tosafos
Tosafot
The Tosafot or Tosafos are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes...
to him. Sofer would correct the boy whenever he made a mistake, as he possessed a phenomenal memory.
Death and legacy
Sofer led the Jewish community in Erlau for some 64 years. Shortly after the Germans occupied Hungary in May 1944, they placed the Jewish population in ghettos. In June, the Germans deported Sofer and his entire community – some 3,000 Jews – to AuschwitzAuschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. They arrived on 21 Sivan
Sivan
Sivan is the ninth month of the civil year and the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a spring month of 30 days...
(June 2), and were gassed a few hours later. Sofer was 94 at the time of his death. His son, Rabbi Moshe Sofer, was murdered at the same time.
Sofer authored a book of responsa, Hisorerus Teshuva (hence he is known as "The Hisorerus Teshuva"), and Shir Maon on the Torah. He was able to pay for the publication of these works only with the help of his wife, who sold all her jewelry to cover the printing costs. He also edited the works of his father and grandfather and prepared them for publication.
Sofer's grandson, Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, re-founded the Erlau community in Israel in 1953. Rabbi Yochanan printed his grandfather's sefarim
Sefer (Hebrew)
Sefer in simple Hebrew is a word that means any kind of "book" It is derived from the same Hebrew root-word as sofer , sifriyah and safrut ....
at the Institute for Research of the Teachings of the Chasam Sofer , which he established. Rabbi Yochanan also presides over the Ohel Shimon-Erlau Yeshiva, named in memory of Rabbi Shimon Sofer.
Children
Sofer had 15 children from his three wives:- Mrs Gitel Frankel (BudapestBudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
) - Rabbi Akiva Sofer (Lvov)
- Mrs Sara Deutch (died in the HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
) - Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Sofer (Rabbi of ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
; died in Holocaust) - Rabbi Moshe Sofer II (Rabbi & Dayan of Eger (Erlau), Hungary; died in Holocaust)
- Rabbi Yaakov Biyamin Sofer (SátoraljaújhelySátoraljaújhelySátoraljaújhely or אוהעלי ) is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary near the Slovak border. It is east from the county capital Miskolc.- History :...
, Hungary; died in Holocaust) - Mrs Rivka Pashkus
- Rabbi Zalman Sofer (Bnei Brak, Israel)
- Serach Pollack (died in Holocaust)
- Rabbi Avraham Sofer (Jerusalem, Israel)
- Mrs Chava Leah Weiss (died in Holocaust)
- Mrs Rachel Rosenblatt (died in Holocaust)
- Mrs Reiza Klein (died in Holocaust)
- Rosa (died at early age)
- Shlomo (died at early age)
