By Rabbi Yair Hoffman
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With the Yomim Tovim over, Rosh haShana and Yom Kippur with its additions to the Shmoneh Esreh and Sukkos with its Hoshanos and daily Mitzvah of the Lulav – there is a pressing question:
How was it that it was only in the generation of the Gaonim that the majority fo the additions were added to the Shmoneh Esreh? If it should have been done, then why wasn’t it done in the generations previous: that of the Tannaim or the Amoraim?
Also, why do we do the Hoshanos daily during Sukkos – wasn’t it just for the Kohanim? And why did Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai enact that we do the Arbah Minim every day? Why wasn’t it done by Hillel or Shammai – or earlier?
The answer is that both of them, the Gaonim and Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai lived during times that were changing. Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai (and Rabban Gamliel) lived through a holocaust – where not only did we die in unimagable numbers, but we lost our Beis HaMikdash. He and Rabban Gamliel knew that we needed something to speak to a lost generation. Hence the enactments of Sukkos and other matters.
The Gaonim were faced with forced conversions to Islam, a huge Jewish tax, and a court system designed to make people embrace Islam. The Gaonim tweaked the Shmoneh Esreh to make it more gripping and emotional.
By the same token, Rav Hirsch stood up during an assimilational upheaval. Jewish youth were abandoning Torah in droves, seduced by the false promises of the Enlightenment. His writings saved a generation. The community that he started still exists and is strong in their spirtuality and for generations, the writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch have stood as monuments of Jewish thought—brilliant, and profound.
The down side, however, is that they often were inaccessible. Even the English translations feel antiquated, almost Victorian. Who wants to wrestle with archaic prose when there are “wonderfully gripping and exciting alternatives”?
We’ve buried a nuclear reactor of Jewish wisdom under layers of dust.
It is doubly sad because this towering 19th-century sage didn’t just comment on Torah; he revolutionized it. His systematic philosophy bridged ancient wisdom with modern challenges and understanding. He created frameworks that transformed how Jews engage with Scripture.
Rav Hirsch’s genius, however, was scattered across volumes, organized by his own internal logic rather than the weekly Torah reading cycle students actually follow.
His insights remained locked away from those who needed them most.
And, boy, do we need them now. One of the reasons behind the Shidduch crisis is a secret – and that is – we have lost a number of our young men to the lures of consumerism, apathy and the golden illusions of the street. We have not given our youth the beautiful philosophical ideals that Rav Hirsch had used to bring back a nation that has strayed. And because of that – because we have not exposed our youth at an earlier age to the golden nuggets of Rav Hirsch’s Torah – he have reduced the pool.
Teimah MiToras Rabbi Hirsch by Reb Naftali Hirsch and his team of incredible scholars, on Bereishis Shmos and Vayikra does just that – it gives a taste of Rav Hirsch – for our generation. There is a halacha in Yore De’ah that a sharp food translates and revitalizes an older taste that is no longer appealing. His reworking of Rav Hirsch’s material on the parsha to address our needs is something that revitalizes lost lessons and insights. It is something that should have happened long ago.
Rav Hirsch’s brilliant insights in dikduk are overloaded with depth. Example: the word achzar means cruel. But if you break the word into two parts it says: Behold! He acts as a stranger..
We now gain enormous insight into a contemporary problem. Sadly, there are children who ghost their parents. They ignore their calls, and essentially alienate them. Where does this come from? Cruelty. Ach! How the estrange.
Reb Naftali’s sefer is filled with these remarkable nuggest of pure gold. With Haskamos from Rav yeruchem Olshin shlita, Rav Malkiel Kotler, Rav Dovid Cohen from Chevron and so many more it is bound to be a best seller.
The author can be reached at [email protected]