Harsh Letter from the Legendary Holy Tzaddik Rabbi Shmelke Klein of Selish ...

Harsh Letter from the Legendary Holy Tzaddik Rabbi Shmelke Klein of Selish, author of Tzror HaChaim - to Maharam Schick – Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest Controversy.

In this letter Rabbi Klein denounces the heretics and asks The Maharam Schick to sign a petition against the seminary. Rabbi Klein sharply criticizes the modernizers and complains about the rise of the heretics since the passing of the great rabbis of the previous generation – Rabbi Mordechai Benet, the Chassam Sofer, the Shemen Rokeach, Rabbi Shalom Ullmann and The Maharam Mintz.

The renowned holy Gaon Rabbi Shmuel Shmelka Klein was known as Rebbe Shmelka Selisher (1815-1875). He was renowned as a miracle worker and all his recommendations were connected to learning Torah. The Divrei Chaim of Sanz sent an ill person to him for a miracle to heal him, and said of him that he was an erudite posek and a great mekubal.

This signed letter is completely in his handwriting. An important and very rare letter. 20.5x17 cm

Background: Starting in 1846, members of the Enlightenment movement in Hungary began trying to convince the ruling regime to establish an institution for liberal rabbis, which would train rabbis in secular studies, so that they could serve as official, state-sanctioned rabbis so that gradually all the Jewish communities would be assigned rabbis with dubious loyalty to traditional Judaism, in order to persuade and lead the general Jewish public toward liberalism and openness and to leave the age-old path of Orthodox Judaism.

For decades the intellectuals tried to convince the authorities, but the efforts of the Torah giants, headed by the students of the Chassam Sofer, managed to cancel and postpone the initiative each time it threatened to become a reality.

After the suppression of the people’s revolution in Hungary in 1848, the Austrians imposed an enormous fine on the Jews, to be used for building Jewish educational institutions, and in 1862 the plan for the establishment of the rabbinical seminary in Budapest was published.

The plan’s announcement sparked a huge storm among the haredi rabbis, who organized petitions that were signed by hundreds and presented to Emperor Franz Josef by a delegation headed by Rabbi Yehuda Assad and Rabbi Yirmiyahu Lowe, resulting in the freezing of the plans.

Following years of pressure from the intellectuals, the emperor acquiesced and in 1873 they were given the money to build the seminary. This news sent shock waves through the haredi community. The Maharam Schick rent his clothes in grief and Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein of Kolomaya declared a day of fasting and mourning. In 1876 the seminary opened its doors, and still exists today.

The Maharam Schick, as one of the outstanding students of the Chassam Sofer, was very active against the seminary and sent dozens of letters to all the leading rabbis of Hungary and beyond for them to protest and form a united stand against the liberal initiative. The rabbis all sent letters supporting the Maharam Schick’s efforts.

The rabbinical seminary features prominently on the responsa by the Maharam Schick and in his book of sermons.