(Foremost Rabbinic leader in Germany, 1808-1888)

HIRSCH, SAMSON RAPHAEL

Oldenburg

13th April 1835

Autograph Letter Signed, in German (with ocasional use of Hebrew) to his cousin Zvi Hirsch May

“(A Letter) of considerable historical interest.” See I. Grunfeld, Translator’s Introduction, Horeb (1962) pp. xxx-xxxii (“How the Horeb came to be Written”) and reproduced on pp. cxli-cxlv (formerly in the collection of Prof. Julius Hirsch, Basle). “Zvi Hirsch May was Registrar-General of the Deutsche-Israelitische Gemeinde of Hamburg, and a man of considerable influence. Hirsch here requests May to find a publisher for his literary manuscript which bore the title: Moriah and Horeb- Essays on Israel’s Duties in the Diaspora. In this letter, Hirsch outlines in considerable length the plan of his work and the motives which prompted him to write it. At the same time he gives a vivid description of the religious conditions among the Jews of his time.” (Grunfeld). May showed the manuscript to the publisher J.F. Hammerich of Altona whos suggested that Hirsch condence this first draft of Horeb and incorporate his ideas into a smaller book. Should that book prove to be a success, the publication of the larger work would then proceed. Hirsch accepted this idea, and thus, it was that he wrote, under the pseudonym Ben Uziel, his celebrated Nineteen Letters (Altona, 1836). Hammerich issued Horeb itself in 1837. See also E.M. Klugman, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: A Biography (1996), pp. 69-71