Call for Papers - David Zvi Hoffmann (1843-1921)

Journal of Jewish Studies, 2021

The present article explores Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann’s (1843–1921) exegetical writings – especially his approach to biblical criticism – in the hitherto unexplored context of German-Jewish Orthodoxy’s struggle over the dogmatic principles of Torah. It highlights the parallels and the differences between Hoffmann and other important exegetical protagonists of German Judaism, especially German-Jewish Orthodoxy, as well as the outstanding significance of his enterprise for the latter. Though Hoffmann’s exegetical conclusions conform to a large extent with traditional Jewish exegesis, his methodological principles, his language and the problems he deals with are closely related to contemporary Wissenschaft. So far as the crisis of German-Jewish Orthodoxy at the beginning of the twentieth century is concerned, the question of how much Hoffmann’s exegesis succeeded in bridging the dichotomy between the dogmatic principles of Torah and Wissenschaft remains open.

2022

Modern Judaism, 2016

This article examines the legal writings of Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, Germany's main legal decisor (possek) in the second half of the nineteenth century. Taking up the question of the relationship between Jews and Christians, the significance of which had become critical in an era during which Jews enjoyed full equality (in law, if not always in fact), this paper will focus specifically on the perception of Bismarckian Germany, its institutions and representatives, in the eyes of Hoffmann and of neo-Orthodox Jewry . The analysis will pursue a double objective: first, to suggest here that Hoffmann’s teshuvot can serve as a window, giving us a rare, and almost unauthorized, glimpse into his personal Weltanschauung; and second, and on a deeper lever, to illustrate how Hoffmann’s decision-making was, consciously or unconsciously, profoundly influenced by his positive self-identification with the German Fatherland, to the point where his jurisprudence departed from all known precedents on two crucial issues which were presented to him.

Published in: A. A. Dubrau, D. Scotto, R. Vimercati Sanseverino (eds.), Religion and Transfer. Interactions between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 273–304, 2020

This article analyzes a Jewish orthodox approach to allegations of immorality concerning Jewish law and the conception of the Jewish God that surfaced in Germany at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. It takes as its case study Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann (1843–1921), an outstanding representative of the Berlin Jewish Neo-Orthodoxy and a legal authority (posek) for European orthodox Jewry. Conflict about the morality of Jewish law in nineteenth century Germany and other European countries revolved around the question of whether the Jews could become citizens of a Western European nation. Could they be trusted despite (or because) of their religious affinities? Is the religious normative system of Halakha compatible with the German legal system? Could Jews truly participate in the German society in spite of their (hidden) disloyalty to the German Fatherland?

Pre-sponse to papers by Balberg, Dohrmann, and Stinchcomb (program included).