Pinchas Horowitz

Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz (c. 1731 – July 1, 1805), also known as the Baal Hafla'ah, was a rabbi and Talmudist.

Life

The descendant of a long line of rabbinical ancestors and the son of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Horowitz of Chortkiv, he received an intensive Talmudic education, from his father and from his older brothers Reb Nachum and Reb Shmelke. Along with his brother Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg he is considered by Chassidim to have been a venerably distinguished disciple of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch. He married at an early age the daughter of the affluent Joel Heilpern, whose support enabled him to dedicate himself entirely to his studies. Adverse circumstances then forced him to accept a rabbinical position, and he became rabbi of Witkowo, from which place he was called later on to Lachovice.

His appointment to the highly distinguished position of Oberrabbiner (Chief Rabbi) of Frankfurt has been attributed to his halachic opinion in a historic and controversial Get (Jewish divorce) case. According to one legend he sought to get involved in the controversial Get of Cleves case and wrote a responsum to validate the divorce. However, before he was able to publish the responsum, his ink bottle spilled over the paper and a colleague who was present consoled him by mentioning that enough rabbis had written on this case and it was not necessary to rewrite it. Rabbi Avraham Abish, then the Rabbi of Frankfurt, had fought to invalidate the divorce; in response, when he died in 1769 the rabbinical court in Frankfurt vowed not to hire for the position of Chief Rabbi anyone who had written a responsum validating the divorce. Since Rabbi Horowitz's responsum had never been published he was able to become the rabbi in the very prestigious community.

While Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz served as the Oberrabbiner of Frankfurt, elected by the community to lead the main synagogue in the ghetto and uphold traditional authority as Av Beit Din, he led a yeshiva where he taught Talmud. At the same time another prominent Talmud scholar and Kabbalist, Rabbi Nathan Adler, operated a private yeshiva in his own house in the ghetto, where he conducted prayer services performing Birkat Kohanim daily, as was customary in Eretz Yisrael, and prayed from a Nusach Sefard Siddur according to the Nusach Ari, diverging from Frankfurt’s longstanding traditions openly and publicly. Both men had been recognised as pious Tzadikkim, extraordinary Talmud scholars, and accepted Halakhists. Despite their differing approaches, R. Pinchas adhering to established communal norms in his public role, but personally praying according to Nusach Ari, and R. Nathan actively worshipping according to Kabbalah in public, they shared a deep mutual respect and close friendship. Nonetheless, tensions arose within the community, as a reaction to R. Nathan’s Kabbalistic form of worship and the mystical stories of dreams and visions spread by his students. It appears that those in opposition felt that his public prayer practices, especially his departure from the traditional Ashkenazic customs of Frankfurt, threatened social order. The Nusach-Frankfurt and Minhag-Frankfurt, regarded by the broader Jewish community as the gold standard of Ashkenazic rite, had been revered as sacred and practiced in Frankfurt for at least five hundred years without alteration, forming a core part of the community’s identity. The opposition was rooted in this deep attachment to tradition and the perceived danger posed by these innovations. The conflicts ultimately culminated in harsh disputes involving threats of bans and excommunication, highlighting the broader struggle between mystical innovation and traditional customs that threatened social cohesion within Jewish society during that period.

The Chasam Sofer considered himself a talmid muvhak of both R. Pinchas Horowitz and R. Nathan Adler.

When Moses Mendelssohn's Biur on ''Pentateuch'' appeared, Horowitz denounced it.

He opposed the establishment of a secular school for his community in 1794.

His daughter married his nephew Zevi Joshua Horowitz.

Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz was succeeded as Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt by his son Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Horowitz, author of Macheneh Levi on the Torah.

Works

Horowitz's chief work is "''Hafla'ah''," novellae on the tractate Ketubot, with an appendix, ''Kuntres Aharon'', or ''Shevet Achim''. The second part, containing novellae on the tractate Kiddushin, also with an appendix, appeared under the title ''Sefer haMakneh'', in 1800. Other-works are: ''Nesivos laShavet'' (glosses on sections 1-24 of the Shulchan Aruch, ''Even HaEzer''), Lemberg, 1837; ''Giv'as Pinchas'', a collection of 84 responsa, in 1837; and "''Panim Yafos''," a kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch, printed with the Pentateuch, Ostroh, 1824 (separate ed. 1851, n.p.).

Rabbi Horowitz was one of the last pilpulists in Germany, and he therefore represents the developed stage of rabbinical dialectics. It was in keeping with these views that he opposed even the slightest change of the traditional form of public worship.See his denunciation of a choir in the synagogue, in ''Givas Pinchas'', No. 45

Notes

References

*Aaron Walden, ''Shem ha-Gedolim he-Ḥadash'', s.v.;
*M. Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen, iv., Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1885

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Pinchas
1731 births
1805 deaths
German Hasidic rabbis
Hasidic rabbis in Europe
People from Chortkiv
Polish Hasidic rabbis
Ukrainian Jewish religious leaders
Hasidic rebbes
Students of Dov Ber of Mezeritch