The seventeenth of Adar is the yahrzeit of Rav Shimon Sofer (1820-1883). The son of the Chasam Sofer, he married Miriam Sternberg, from a wealthy family at the age of 17 and lived near his father in Pressburg. His mother was the daughter of Rav Akiva Eiger, and she died when he was eleven.
From childhood he showed a great interest in poetry. In Pressburg, his father sent him to learn Kabbalah with the Pressburger Dayan, Rav Nosson Binyomin Lieber. The Chasam Sofer told him that if he wished to study Kabbalah, he should learn the sefer Shaarei Orah, as it gladdens the heart and lights up the eyes. After his father’s death, he and his brother began to publish his father’s responsa. In 1844 Rav Shimon was named rav of Mattersdorf where he remained for 18 years and opened a yeshiva. Over the years Rav Shimon turned down several rabbinical appointments. Some he refused because he wished to move to Palestine and didn’t want to make a fresh commitment in Europe, others, because he felt that the community inviting him had taken steps to move away from traditional Judaism. In 1859 he accepted the role as rav of Cracow. He had turned down the opportunity in 1857, but subsequently Rav Chaim Sanzer convinced him to take it. He remained there until his passing.
Before traveling to Cracow the Tiferes Shlomo of Radmosk advised Rav Shimon that there was no lack of poskim in Cracow and plenty of Torah scholars. If he wanted to be successful, he should focus on improving the spiritual and physical conditions for all the inhabitants, rather than worrying about his role as posek or head of a yeshiva. As it is, some of the locals wished to show him up by arguing with him during his first speech, but he put them in their place and was not bothered by them again.
Rav Shimon founded Machzikei HaDaas, a Galitzian organization dedicated to strengthening Orthodox Judaism as well as a related newspaper. It stood in opposition to the Shomer Israel Society which encouraged Jews to assimilate into the local population and advocated legislation weakening yeshiva education. Together with the Belzer Rebbe he created a political party and in 1879 he was elected to the Austrian parliament on the strength of the Orthodox electorate. It was said that his presence in parliament, with his long beard and tzitzis extending almost to the ground, was a true kiddush Hashem. He was an advocate for Jewish causes in the parliament and the Yitav Lev said that his self-sacrifice, in terms of his giving up opportunities to learn and teach Torah, and to write chiddushei Torah, in order to represent the Jewish people, is one of the most amazing things he had ever witnessed. (I hear echoes of Mordechai HaTzaddik). He also founded Rosh Pina, an organization dedicated to helping the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael.
In 1880 Emperor Franz Joseph visited Cracow. The entire Jewish community came out with all of their sifrei Torah (there were about 80 shuls in Cracow). Rav Shimon greeted the emperor along with a delegation from the Jewish community. He received special permission to put on a hat in order to recite the bracha for seeing an emperor. The emperor responded amen to the bracha. The rav was invited to a ball in honor of the emperor but declined to attend. Subsequently, Rav Shimon sent a gold-decorated parchment to the emperor to offer good wishes on his son’s wedding. During the Austro-Prussian War, when many wounded soldiers were sent to Cracow for treatment, Rav Shimon organized the Jewish community to help the soldiers and was awarded a medal by the emperor for his efforts.
When his brother, the Ksav Sofer, who was the rav of Pressburg, died in 1871, leaders of the Cracow community made sure that several telegrams did not reach Rav Shimon informing him of his brother’s death, as they feared he would leave Cracow and take the position in Pressburg. He found out two weeks later. His derashos and responsa were published under the name Michtav Sofer.
* * * * *
The twenty -third of Adar is the yahrzeit of Rav Yechezkel Roth (1935-2021). Born in Romania, he studied in yeshiva in Arad, Romania. In 1953 he was able to escape Romania and moved to Yerushalaim where he learned in the Satmar Yeshiva under Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund. He also learned in Dushinsky and frequently attended shiurim from Rav Chaim Shmuelwitz at the Mir. He developed a relationship with Rav Chaim. After his marriage, Rav Chatzkel served as a posek for the Eidah HaCharedis and as rav of the Satmar Shul in Katamon, where his wife, Chaya Rechel, had grown up. In 1972, at the request of the Satmar Rov, he moved to Boro Park to be the posek for the Satmar community there. He was then referred to as the Satmar dayan.
After the passing of the Satmar Rov he founded an independent community called Yerei Hashem of Karlsberg, which was where his great-grandfather had been rav. He also founded a kollel to train future poskim. In 1990 a public school for special needs children was opened in Monroe. As it was publicly funded there were no mezuzos on the doors. Although Rav Moshe Teitelbaum, who was then the Satmar Rebbe, permitted the use of the building, Rav Roth held it was forbidden until mezuzos were installed. Whereas the Satmar poskim prohibited the use of the Williamsburg eruv, the Karlsberg Rov held it was kosher. Generally speaking, his reputation was that of a lenient posek especially when it came to matters of taharas hamishpocha.
As a youngster he had studied Kabbalah in Yerushalaim with Rav Yeshaya Asher Zelig Margolis. In 1983 he purchased a large home near Meron and would be there frequently for Shabbos, Lag B’Omer and other times and would host many yeshiva bachurim. He published commentaries on the portions of the Shulchan Aruch that cover the halachos of interest and niddah, as well as three volumes of responsa.
In 2016 he suffered a serious heart attack and was placed in an induced coma on a respirator for some time. Based on a ruling of the Terumas Hadeshen, that if someone almost died and falls unconscious he must subsequently remarry his wife, he asked his wife if she wished to remain married to him. When she answered in the affirmative, he performed kiddushin with her in the presence of witnesses.
