25 Tishrei · Yahrzeit
Chatam Sofer
Rabbi Moshe bar Shmuel Sofer of Pressburg – Chatam Sofer
Yahrzeit – 25 Tishrei
Resting place - Bratislava, Slovakia
Resting place – Bratislava (Pressburg) – Zidovska nabozenska obec Kozia 18, 814 47 Bratislava;
You must call the Memorial's caretaker in advance – phone: +421 948 554442
The Chatam Sofer was born in Frankfurt am Main. From an early age he displayed outstanding abilities, and at the age of 13 he delivered a profound halachic lecture before respected rabbis. He studied under Rabbi Natan Adler and Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz. Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz and Rabbi Mordechai Bennet granted him the title of rabbi – giving him rabbinic semicha.
The Chatam Sofer married the daughter of the rabbi of Prossnitz, and in 1794 was appointed rabbi of Dresnitz (Strážnice), and in 1798 – of Mattersdorf in Hungary, present-day Austria. In Mattersdorf, the Chatam Sofer established a yeshiva, which soon became one of the largest in Hungary. His most famous student was Rabbi Meir Ash, the future rabbi of Uzhhorod. In 1806 he was invited to serve as rabbi of Pressburg (present-day Bratislava). He transferred his yeshiva to Pressburg, which was at that time the Jewish center of Hungary, and it soon achieved worldwide fame, with the number of its students reaching 500. Nearly all the rabbis of the major communities of Hungary of the following generation passed through this yeshiva.
Together with Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov and the Vilna Gaon, the Chatam Sofer stands at the source of the development of Judaism over the last two centuries. Thanks to Rabbi Moshe's efforts, the religious level of Hungarian Jewry rose significantly. Toward the end of his life, Jews from all over Europe and from the Land of Israel turned to him. He declared an uncompromising struggle against reform in Judaism, asserting that any innovation is forbidden by the Torah (חדש אסור מן התורה), although he supported the establishment of schools that taught trades. The Chatam Sofer repeatedly emphasized the importance of the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel, and many of his students settled in Eretz Yisrael, establishing new neighborhoods in cities and new settlements. The most famous of these are Petach Tikva and the Batei Ungarin neighborhood in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, chief rabbi of Jerusalem and founder of the Eda Charedit, was a student of Tzvi Manheimer, a student of the Chatam Sofer, and throughout his activities he consistently followed the rulings of his teacher's teacher.
Bezrat Hashem, before Shabbat, on 9 Kislev 2018, Hashem granted me the merit of visiting the graves of tzadikim in legendary Pressburg (Bratislava). This had been my dream ever since reading a certain story about a Kaddish in Pressburg.
You cannot get in here without calling ahead – the memorial opens by appointment – the caretaker speaks Hebrew, English, and Slovak (quite understandable to Russian speakers). There aren't many visitors here – but that same day we saw two other families as well.
The feelings are indescribable – within half an hour you truly sense how tens of thousands of Jews from the world of Torah – a world of order – were caught up in the horror of the Shoah… Beneath the bridge where the memorial is located there were mass graves; the Chevra Kadisha did a great deal to perpetuate the memory of the Jews of Pressburg.
Romi Cohen, a native of Pressburg who lost his entire family in the Holocaust and later moved to New York, organized the reconstruction of this memorial.
May the merit of the tzadik protect our people!
The Story of a Kaddish in Pressburg
https://silatehilim.com/история-одного-кадиша-в-прессбурге/
Why the Mother's Name Is Mentioned During Prayer
https://silatehilim.com/теилим-86-плони-бен-плонит-или-когда-во-в/
The Chatam Sofer's Segula - Psalms "Al-Tashchet" (Do Not Destroy)
https://silatehilim.com/псалмы-аль-ташхет-не-погуби-сгула-х/
(From a trip to the Chatam Sofer Memorial in Bratislava with the Yeshiva "Yodei Bina")
Pilgrimage site:
Grave: Chatam Sofer