A Blast From the Past: The Shabbos Shofar Showdown in the Early 1900s (Part I)

As Jews prepared for Rosh Hashanah 1904, Rabbi Akiva Yosef Shlesinger took up his pen and wrote to a rabbinic journal in Hungary, laying out why he believed the shofar should be sounded on Shabbos despite the rabbinic ban. In this class, we examine his account of the attempt leading up to Rosh Hashanah 1882, and then again leading up to Rosh Hashanah 1904. We'll trace the steps he took, the halachic and extra-halachic reasoning behind them, and how other famous rabbis reacted. Click here for the handout A Blast From the Past: The Shabbos Shofar Showdown in the Early 1900s (Part I)