Friday, November 28, 2008
Chasam Sofer and R' Mordechai Banet on the study of Geography
and here is something so interesting that I had to make it into its own post. Shimshon Halevi Bloch (one of Shirs pals - the first volume is dedicated to him and the second to Renak) wrote a two volume work on Geography called Shvili HaOlam 1, 2. He recieved an interesting Haskamah from R' Mordechai Banet - Chief Rabbi of Moravia as well as a letter of support from Chasam Sofer (I have never seen this letter quoted in any of the studies on Chasam Sofer), as well as R' Eliezer Fleckles of Prague (Talmud of Noda B' Yehuda), R' Shmuel Landau and others.
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There is article about him in Hebrew Wikipedia:
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/שמשון_בלוך
BTW, the pages of part I and part II are switched on HebrewBooks.org.
I asume you wrote that wiki entry. Nice Job!
Check out Zinberg's desc. in his History as well:
http://books.google.com/books?id=VNWtFT00lhAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Israel+Zinberg,-+a+history&ei=X8kxSaHLH4GSyASB9I3kCg#PPT103,M1
I also have Levinsohn's letter parodying Shvili. If you like I can post it.
Yes, I wrote that. Thank you.
Levinsohn's writing about Bloch is indeed very entertaining. Klausner quotes some of it (not all of it) in his chapter on Bloch.
In a recent article,"Was the Chasam Sofer Inconsistent?", Hakirah,4(2007),New york, page 253 and note 34 there, I briefly mention this "letter of support" in my larger discussion of the Chasam Sofer's approbations and "letters of support" to, at least,six (most bibliographers only mention five) works written in German or of secular knowledge written in Hebrew.
I think it's mentioned in an article in TUM Journal
Chasam Sofer's approbation is especially interesting since Bloch quotes from Mendelssohn,etc. That CS considered the study of certain secular subjects important is well known. He even started writing such a work himself which should be in Likuttim.
BTW, not only did R' Shimon Sofer speak German but his accent was flawless and his penmanship perfect.
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