27 Facts About Moses Sofer

Moses Sofer was a teacher to thousands and a powerful opponent of the Reform movement in Judaism, which was attracting many Jews in the Austrian Empire, and beyond.

Moses Sofer established a yeshiva in Pozsony, the Pressburg Yeshiva, which became the most influential yeshiva in Central Europe, producing hundreds of future leaders of Hungarian Jewry.

Moses Sofer published very little during his lifetime; however, his post-humously published works include more than a thousand responsa, novellae on the Talmud, sermons, biblical and liturgical commentaries, and religious poetry.

Moses Sofer is an authority who is quoted extensively in Orthodox Jewish scholarship.

Moses Sofer's chiddushim sparked a new style in rabbinic commentary, and some editions of the Talmud contain his emendations and additions.

At the age of nine, Moses Sofer entered the yeshiva of Rabbi Nathan Adler at Frankfurt, a kabbalist known for its strict and unusual ritual practices.

Moses Sofer was a pupil of Pinchas Horowitz of Frankfurt for one year, leaving in 1776 for the yeshiva of another rabbi, David Tebele Scheuer, in the neighboring city of Mainz where he studied in 1776 and 1777, then returned to his native city.

In 1782 Nathan Adler became rabbi of Boskovice, Moravia, and on Adler's advice Moses Sofer went to Prostejov, Moravia.

Moses Sofer became a member of the Chevra Kadisha, and eventually became head of the yeshiva in Prostejov.

In 1794 Moses Sofer became rabbi of Straznice after he had received government permission to settle there.

Moses Sofer declined many offers for the rabbinate, but in 1806, he accepted a call to Pressburg.

Moses Sofer led the community of Pressburg for 33 years, until his death in 1839.

Moses Sofer was profoundly opposed to the reformers, and attacked them in his speeches and writings.

Moses Sofer applied a pun to the Talmudic term chadash asur min haTorah, "'new' is forbidden by the Torah" as a slogan heralding his opposition to any philosophical, social or practical change to customary Orthodox practice.

Moses Sofer did not allow the addition of any secular studies to the curriculum of his Pressburg Yeshiva.

Moses Sofer's son studied at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary, which taught secular studies and was headed by Azriel Hildesheimer.

Moses Sofer was surprised at what he described as Schick's halakhic contortions in condemning even those "status quo" communities that clearly adhered to halakhah.

Moses Sofer was elected to the "Polish Club", in which he took an active part until his death.

Negotiations with the regime enabled the community to preserve the section of the cemetery including Moses Sofer's grave, enclosed in concrete, below the surface of the new road.

The most notable recent living descendant and heir to the Moses Sofer legacy was Rabbi Yochanan Moses Sofer.

Moses Sofer was the leader of the Erlau movement, whose progenitor was his grandfather, Rabbi Shimon Sofer of Erlau, a grandson of the Chatam Sofer, and son of the Ktav Sofer.

Moses Sofer then returned to Eger to re-establish his grandfather's Yeshiva.

The Ezrat Torah Campus in Jerusalem is named Beth Chasam Moses Sofer, as is the Erlau Synagogue in Haifa.

Moses Sofer has authored numerous Torah commentary works, naming them Imrei Sofer.

Moses Sofer's father, Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld, the rabbi of Mattersdorf, whose father, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, was a grandson of the Chasam Sofer.

Moses Sofer escaped to America, and immediately re-established the Chasan Sofer Yeshiva in the Lower East Side, from where it was later relocated to Boro Park.

Rabbi Ungar, a descendant of the Chasam Moses Sofer, founded a yeshiva named Machneh Avraham, and a kashrut organization named Chug Chasam Moses Sofer, which are both very active and well known.