Samuel Holdheim
Samuel Holdheim (1806–1860) was a German leader of the extreme wing of the early Reform Judaism movement.
Early life
Holdheim was born at Kempen, Provinz Posen, in 1806. The son of Orthodox Jewish parents, Holdheim was early inducted into rabbinical literature. Before he was able to speak German with even moderate correctness he had become a master of Talmudic argumentation, and his fame had traveled far beyond the limits of his native place. This reputation secured for him employment as teacher of young boys in private families both in Kempen and in larger cities of his native province. It was while thus engaged that he began to supplement his store of rabbinical knowledge by private studies in the secular and classical branches.
Holdheim went to Prague and subsequently to Berlin to study philosophy and the humanities; and his keen intellect, combined with his eagerness to learn, made it possible for him to reach his goal in an incredibly short time, though the lack of preliminary systematic preparation left its imprint upon his mind, to a certain degree, to the last. Under Samuel Landau of Prague he continued also his Talmudical studies. While still a young man it became his ambition to occupy a rabbinical position in a larger German town; for he desired to show the older rabbis that secular and philosophical scholarship could well be harmonized with rabbinical erudition. But he had to wait until 1836, when, after several disappointments elsewhere, he was called as rabbi to Frankfurt (Oder). Here he remained until 1840, encountering many difficulties, due both to the distrust of those within the congregation who suspected the piety of a rabbi able to speak grammatical German, and who was a graduate of a German university, and to the peculiar legislation which in Prussia under Frederick William III regulated the status of the Jewish congregations.
Attitude Toward Government
To bring about a change in this state of affairs was the purpose of Holdheim. In the preface to his Gottesdienstliche Vorträge (Frankfurt (Oder), 1839) he appealed both to the government to accord the modern rabbinate the dignity due to it, and to the congregations to cease regarding the rabbi as an expert in Jewish casuistics mainly charged with the duty of answering she'elot (ritual questions) and inquiries concerning dietary laws. He insisted upon the recognition of the rabbi as preacher and teacher, who at the same time gives attention to the practical requirements of his office as the expert in Talmudical law.
While in Frankfurt, Holdheim decided every question according to his own interpretation of Halakah. In his pulpit discourses belonging to this period the intention is plain to steer clear of mere rationalistic moralizing, on the one hand, and dry legalizing and unscientific speculation (in the style of the old derashah), on the other. Holdheim thus deserves to be remembered as one of the pioneers of turning Judiasm into Christianity homiletics, and asserted that one could pick & chose what aspects of Judiasm they wanted to observe for convienance sake. He also repeatedly took pains to arouse his reform congregation to help carry out Geiger's and Philippson's project of founding a Reform faculty. Judaism even then had ceased for Holdheim to be an end unto itself. He had begun to view Judaism as a religion where one could pick apsects which tickled their fancy and reject other aspects.
Progressive Views
Holdheim now became a contributor to the Jewish periodicals (e.g., Philippson's Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums and Jost's Israelitische Annalen). Among his articles two especially are worthy of note. One (in Allg. Zeit. des Jud. ii, Nos. 4-9) discusses the essential principles of Judaism, arriving at the conclusion that Judaism has no binding dogmas; the other (Jost's Annalen, 1839, Nos. 30-32) treats of the oath demanded of Jewish witnesses in criminal procedures. In the former of these papers Holdheim formulates the principle which is basic to his position and that of other Reformers: Judaism is not a religion of dead creed, but of living deeds. In the latter essay he utilizes his Talmudic juridical erudition to demonstrate the injustice done to the Jews by the Prussian courts. Another of his Frankfurt publications bears the title Der Religiöse Fortschritt im Deutschen Judenthume, (Leipzig, 1840). The occasion which called forth this booklet was the controversy waging around Geiger's election as rabbi in Breslau. Holdheim pleads for progress, on the ground that at all times the Torah has been taught, in accordance with the changing conditions of succeeding ages; but this progress he holds to be a gradual development, never a noisy opposition to recognized existing standards.
In the meantime Holdheim had received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig, and had come to be looked upon by congregations as well as by Jewish scholars as a leader (see Orient. Lit. 1840, No. 35 et passim; Jost's Annalen, 1840, No. 39). Frankfurt having become too restricted a sphere for him, he accepted a call to Schwerin as Landesrabbiner, leaving Frankfurt on August 15, 1840.
Hamburg Temple Controversy
In his new field Holdheim gave his first attention to the founding of schools for Jewish children. The Hamburg Temple controversy led him to take part in the discussion (see Annalen, 1841, Nos. 45, 46). He hailed the new movement as an important augury of the quickening influences of modern views. He defended the Hamburg program as thoroughly founded in Judaism and in the very line of the synagogue's own history, though he was not blind to its inconsistencies. Yet, even though authority of tradition was denied and recognized at one and the same time, the movement stood for the differentiation of the Jewish national from the Jewish religious elements. He also wrote an opinion (Gutachten) on the prayer-book of the Hamburg Temple (Hamburg, 1841), justifying its departures from the old forms by appealing to Talmudical precedents (Soṭah vii.1; Ber. 10a, 27b, 33a; Maimonides, "Yad," Tefillah, xi.9). Among the many rejoinders which Ḥakam Bernays' excommunication of this prayer-book evoked, Holdheim's deserves to be ranked as the most thorough and incisive.
More controversies
Soon after, the most important work by Holdheim appeared under the title Die Autonomie der Rabbinen, (Schwerin and Berlin, 1843). In this he pleads for the abolition of Jewish marriage and divorce regulations mainly on the ground that the Jews did not apparently constitute a political nation - i.e. Jewish religious institutions must be rigidly kept distinct from the Jewish national ones, to which latter belong the laws of marriage and divorce. The laws of the "modern states" were apparently not in conflict with the principles of the Jewish religion; therefore these "modern laws," and not the Jewish national laws of other days, should regulate Jewish marriages and divorces (see Samuel Hirsch in Orient. Lit., 1843, No. 44). It is worth noting that the superiority of these very same "modern laws" later led to the gas ovens!
As a result, his book is created a stir among German Jewish communities.
At Rabbinical Conferences and his sudden death
Holdheim took part in conferences at Braunschweig (1844), Frankfurt am Main (1845), and Breslau (1846). The stand taken by the last with regard to the Sabbath did not satisfy him. He viewed it as "weak compromise." In his christianized view the essential element of a "true Sabbath" was not worship, but rest (see his Offene Briefe über die Dritte Rabbinerversammlung, in Israelit, 1846, Nos. 46-48). The debates at these conferences had touched on vital subjects. Holdheim felt prompted to treat some of these at greater length, and therefore in quick succession he published the following essays: Was Lehrt das Rabbinische Judenthum über den Eid? 1844; Ueber Auflösbarkeit der Eide, Hamburg, 1845; Vorschläge zu einer Zeitgemässen Reform der Jüdischen Ehegesetze, Schwerin, 1845; Die Religiöse Stellung des Weiblichen Geschlechts im Talmudischen Judenthum, ib. 1846; Prinzipien eines dem Gegenwärtigen Religionsbewusstsein Entsprechenden Cultus, 1846.
Holdheim, consulted among others when the Jüdische Reformgenossenschaft was founded in Berlin, was called to be its rabbi and preacher in 1847. As leader of the Reformgenossenschaft he had a share in the editing of its prayer-book. He instituted the radical rejection of keeping Saturday as the Jewish Sabbath, and instead moved its observance to Sunday to keep the behavior of Reform Jews in assimilation to Christianity. Under his rule the observance of the second days of the holy days (except the second day of Rosh ha-Shanah) were abolished.
He also officiated at mixed marriages (see his Gemischte Ehen Zwischen Juden und Christen, Berlin, 1850). He also had to defend his views from dissenters within Judiasm who remained true to their faith (see his Das Gutachten des Herrn L. Schwab, Rabbiner zu Pesth, ib. 1848). Though engaged in many ways in the development of his society and in the organization of its institutions, during the thirteen years of his stay in Berlin he found leisure to write a text-book for schools on the religious and moral doctrines of the Mishnah (Berlin, 1854), a criticism of Stahl (Ueber Stahl's Christliche Toleranz, ib. 1856), and a catechism (Jüdische Glaubens-und Sittenlehre, ib. 1857). He also wrote a history of the Reformgenossenschaft (Gesch. der Jüdischen Reformgemeinde, 1857) and a more ambitious work (in Hebrew) on the rabbinical and Karaite interpretations of the marriage laws (Ma'amar ha-Ishut, 1860).
Holdheim died suddenly at Berlin on August 22, 1860. Holdheim was laid to rest among the dead of the Berlin congregation, Geiger preaching the funeral oration.
See also
External links
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
- Redefining Judaism in an Age of Emancipation: Comparative Perspectives on Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860), edited by Christian Wiese, Leiden, Brill, 2006.