Pressburg Yeshiva (Austria-Hungary)

Chassam Sofer Yeshiva-Pressburg

Rabbi Moshe Sofer (Chassam Sofer)

Painting of the Chasam Sofer.

The Pressburg Yeshiva, was the largest and most influential Yeshiva in Central Europe in the 19th century. It was founded in the city of Pressburg, Austrian Empire (today Bratislava, Slovakia) by Rabbi Moshe Sofer (known as the Chasam Sofer) and was considered the largest Yeshiva since the time of the Babylonian Talmud ^[1].

Some sources document its establishment in 1803 whilst others cite 1806. The Yeshiva was known as The Chassam Sofer Yeshiva, or simply as Pressburg Yeshiva. ^[2] ^[3]

Unlike Yeshiva’s in Czarist Russia which were forced to operate clandestinely. The Pressburg Yeshiva was recognized by the Austro-Hungarian Empire whose emperor Franz Joseph I sympathized and respected the Jews and their leader Rabbi Sofer. The Yeshiva was licensed by the Minister of Education of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under the law, the school required the four upper grades to study secular studies. These secular studies were not taught in the yeshiva, but students attended and took exams at another Jewish school in Pressburg run by the orthodox Jewish community. ^[4]

The Yeshiva was founded at the height of the Age of Enlightenment and surge of the Jewish Haskalah movement. As such, the Chassam Sofer stood at the forefront against any reform to traditional Judaism training his many students to maintain strict observance of Torah and Shulchan Aruch.

This yeshiva produced hundreds of future leaders of Austro-Hungarian Jewry who made great influence on the general traditional orthodox and future Charedi Judaism . Notable students of the Chassam Sofer were:

Rabbi Yehuda Aszod (Yehudah Ya'aleh), (1794–1866)
Rabbi Aharon Duvid Deutsch (Goren Duvid), (1813–1878)
Rabbi Dovid Zvi Ehrenfeld (d. 1861), (son-in-law)
Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld (1835–1883), (Chasan Sofer) (grandson)
Rabbi Aharon Fried (Tzel Hakesef), (1813–1891)
Rabbi Chaim Joseph Gottlieb of Stropkov.
Rabbi Menachem Katz, (1795–1891)
Rabbi Yisroel Yitzchok Aharon Landesberg, (1804–1879)
Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein (Kolomea) (Maskil El Dol), (1815–1891)
Rabbi Chaim Zvi Mannheimer (Ein Habdoilach), (1814–1886)
Rabbi Yehuda Modrin (Trumas Hacri), (1820–1893)
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Panet (Maglei Tzedek), (1818–1884)
Rabbi Meir Perles, (1811–1893)
Rabbi Avrohom Schag (Ohel Avrohom), (1801-1876)
Rabbi Dovid Schick (Imrei Duvid) (died: 1890) brother of Moshe Schick ^[5]

Rabbi Moshe Schick (Maharam Schick), (1807-1879)
Rabbi Avraham Yehuda Hacohen Schwartz (Kol Aryeh), (1824-1883)
Rabbi Shimon Sidon (Shevet Shimon) (1815 - 1891), Rabbi of Cifer and Trnava
Rabbi Aharon Singer, (c. 1806-1868)
Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Binyamin Sofer (Ktav Sofer), (1815-1872) (son)
Rabbi Chaim Sofer (Machne Chaim), (1822-1886)^[6]
Rabbi Naftali Sofer (Matei Naftali), (1819-1899)
Rabbi Shimon Sofer, (1821-1883) (son)
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Spitzer (Tikun Shloime), (1811–1893), (son-in-law), Rabbi of Schiff Shul in Vienna
Rabbi Yoel Unger (Teshuvas Rivo), (1800-1886)

Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer (Ksav Sofer)

Upon Moses Sofer's death on October 3, 1839, his son, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (known as the Ksav Sofer) succeeded him as Rosh Yeshiva. Like his father, Rabbi Samuel Binyamin was a man of great Talmudic knowledge and of great character. Even the Emperor Franz Joseph, was impressed by him and recognized the Yeshiva as an official theological college. This status exempted students from military service. ^[7]

Amongst his students were:

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein (1826-1873) Author of Shenos Chaim Chaim.
Rabbi Jacob Koppel Reich (1838-1929) ^[8] ^[9]
Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld [1848-1932]
Rabbi Dr. Hillel Klein (1849-1926) (Honorary president of the Agudas Harabanim, president of Agudath Israel of America, treasurer of Ezras Torah, Nassi of Kolel Shomrei Hachomos in Jerusalem and vice-president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America) ^[10]

Rabbi Simcha Bunim Sofer (Shevet Sofer)

Upon Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin's death on December 31, 1871, his son, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Sofer (known as the Shevet Sofer) assumed both the positions of Rav of Pressburg and rosh yeshiva of the Pressburg Yeshiva which number some 400 students at the time.^[11]

The Tiferess Shabboss Society was established in 1883 by students of the Pressburg Yeshiva. The society aimed at awakening learning competition between the Yeshiva students. Every Shabbat, one of the young men was chosen to give a "shiur" on the subject being learnt in the yeshiva.

In 1903 a booklet was published by the Tiferess Shabboss Society, bearing its own name. This book names some 240 students who were learning at the Pressburg Yeshiva at that time. Amongst the young men mentioned are dozens of Hungarian rabbis, including a few Gedolei Torah :

Rabbi Ya'akov Bender The Young Man (Rabbi of Waitzen)
Rabbi Zvi Dikak (Rabbi of Ujhel)
Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky (I), (Rabbi of Galanta, Chief Rabbi of Edah HaChareidis)
Rabbi Asher Anshel Jungreiss (Rabbi of Csenger)
Rabbi Zvi Kintzelicher
Rabbi Menachem Mendle Schick, (Rabbi of Szikszó)
Rabbi [Shabtai] Sheptel Weiss (Rabbi of Nagysimonyi)
Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin Shpitzer (Rabbi of Halicz, Miskolc & Hamburg)
Rabbi Menachem Sofer.
Rabbi Shlomo Sofer

^[12]

Other known students were:

Rabbi Shlomo Breuer (1850-1936) ^[13]
Rav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal (1885-1944) ^[14] ^[15]
Rabbi Benjamin Szold (1829-1902) ^[16]
Rabbi Baruch Kunstat (1885-1967)

Rabbi Akiva Sofer (Daas Sofer)

In 1907, after the passing of Rabbi Simcha Bunim, his son Rabbi Akiva Sofer (known as the Daas Sofer) assumed leadership over the Pressburg Yeshiva and congregation. The First World War and the resultant breakup of the Hapsburg Empire brought tumultuous times to the Yeshiva. Pressburg became Bratislava and passed to the dominion of the new country Czechoslovakia. Countries such as Hungary, Austria, Germany and Poland hampered efforts of students trying to reach the Yeshiva with difficulties attaining passports and visas. Nonetheless, the Yeshiva flourished and continued to operate. After the Czech crises of 1938 and Hitler’s invasion of the country, Rabbi Akiva fled Hungary. Upon Advise from his uncle Rabbi Shimon Sofer (II) of Erlau, he escaped to Switzerland and from there to Jerusalem. There he re-established the Yeshiva keeping the name “Pressburg Yeshiva”. ^[17] ^[18]

Amongst his students were:

Rabbi Yechiel Fishel Eisenbach ^[19]
Rabbi Dr Isidore Epstein ^[20]

Rabbi Akiva Sofer passed away in 1959

Chassam Sofer Yeshiva-Erlau

Rabbi Shimon Sofer (Hisorerus Tshuvah) & Rabbi Moshe Sofer (Yad Sofer)

Rabbi Shimon Sofer (II), another son of Rabbi Shmuel Benyamin, founded a Yeshiva in the Hungarian town Erlau (Eger).

This Yeshiva was referred to as the Chassam Sofer’s Yeshiva of Hungary and was run by Rabbi Shimon and his son Moshe. In 1944, the Jews of Erlau were deported to Aushwitz, where Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Moshe and their families were exterminated. Rabbi Moshe’s two sons Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (II) and Yochanan survived.

Rabbi Yochanan Sofer (Imrei Sofer)

After the Holocaust, Rabbi Yochanan refounded the Chassam Sofer Yeshiva in Pest together with Rabbi Moshe Stern (Rav of Debrecen) author of Be’er Moshe (1914-1997). ^[21]^[22]

In 1947, Rabbi Yochanan and his brother Avraham Shmuel Binyamin relocated to Erlau where they re-established the Yeshiva. Rabbi Yochanan married and was appointed as Rabbi of the fledgling Orthodox Jewish community there.^[23]

Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin died of illness in 1948, unmarried. He left over written torah commentaries which were published by Rabbi Yochanan who named the work; Divrei Sofer.

Due to the Communist grip on Hungary on Hungary and oppression of Judaism there, Sofer immigrated to Israel together with his yeshiva in 1950. For a short period of time, the yeshiva merged with the Pressburg Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Sofer served there as a Maggid Shiur.

In 1953 Rabbi Yochanan and his students established their own Yeshiva in Katamon, Jerusalem originally naming it High Yeshiva of Rabbi Akiva Eiger after the Chassam Sofer's father-in-law.

A short time later, Rabbi Yochanan founded the Institute for Research of the Teachings of the Chasam Sofer (Hebrew: מכון חת"ם סופר‎) and honored Rabbi Akiva Sofer of Pressburg to preside over the Institution. This institution, which is still active, has published hundreds of Torah commentaries authored by The Chassam Sofer, his family and disciples.

In 1961 Rabbi Yochanan inaugurated a large new Yeshiva campus and named it Ohel Shimon after his grandfather.

Todays Erlau community continues the Legacy of the Chassam Sofer and the Ksav Sofer with many of its Talmudei Torah and buildings named after them. Though the Yeshiva does not bear the name Pressburg, it is indisputably considered the most renown and largest Yeshiva of the Chassam Sofer’s teachings.