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Full Description
Few stars shone as
brightly in the Jewish heavens of the Nineteenth Century as Rabbi Moshe
Sofer, the Chasam Sofer. Authoritative halachic decisor, rabbi,
teacher, commentator, leader -- the range of his activity is
breathtaking. No less astonishing is the consistent excellence of his
performance in every one of his many fields: the rabbi of Pressburg
(present-day Bratislava), Slovakia; the head of a yeshivah that
produced the prototypes of rabbinic and lay leadership, past and
present; the most important rabbinic figure in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire; the man who provided strength and direction for Torah Judaism
in a dangerous and turbulent era. His legacy survives to this day,
throughout the Jewish world.
In many thousands of
synagogues and homes, no Sabbath is complete without the Torah of the
Chasam Sofer. As one great rosh yeshivah put it, “Everything is there:
breadth, depth, interpretation, analysis, stimulation, brilliance,
insight. The ideas are never stale. There is always something novel and
richly satisfying.”
In this book, the Chasam Sofer’s Torah
commentaries are brought to the English reader for the first time --
and it is done with the skill one should expect from such an
undertaking. Culled from various works, with the original Hebrew text
and source presented, this anthology on the weekly Torah readings is a
representative sample of his thought and comment. Anyone who studies
this book week after week will find himself immeasurably enriched and
anxious for more.
The author, Rabbi Yosef Stern, has
established himself as a scholar and anthologizer of the first order.
His previous works have introduced thousands of people to the classic
ideas of the Sfas Emes. With this series, his anthology of the Chasam
Sofer on the Torah, Rabbi Stern performs another great service for the
Torah community.
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