Seligman Baer Bamberger

Seligman Baer (Isaac Dov) Bamberger (born Wiesenbronn, near Kitzingen, Bavaria, 6 November 1807; died Würzburg 13 October 1878) was a Talmudist and a leader of Orthodox Judaism in Germany. Between 1840 and his death he served as rabbi of Würzburg, and is therefore often referred to by his position as the Würzburger Rav.

He commenced his yeshiva studies in Fürth at the age of fifteen, under Rabbis Wolf Hamburger and Judah Leib Halberstadt. Five years later he received semicha (rabbinic ordination), but did not enter the rabbinate because a university degree was required for that in 19th-century Germany. He opened a general business store in Kitzingen. The store was not successful (possibly because Bamberger preferred to spend as much time as possible studying Talmud). He married two years later, to the daughter of Rabbi Seckel Wormser of Fulda.

In 1838 he represented the Orthodox camp at a conference instigated by the Bavarian government at which several Reform-minded notables had hoped to bring about changes in the organisation of the Jewish communities. As a result of his success at this conference he was invited to succeed Abraham Bing as rabbi of Würzburg.

In Würzburg he rapidly opened a yeshiva. In 1855 he opened an elementary school, the first of its kind in Germany (previously children had been instructed in small synagogue schools). In 1864, after a two-year preparation, he also opened a seminary specifically for the training of teachers of Jewish subjects, of which there was a shortage in Germany.

Bamberger was one of the last rabbinical writers in Germany. His first work was Melecheth Shamayim (The Work of the Heaven, Altona, 1853, a reference to Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 13a) on the laws pertaining to Torah scrolls, tefillin (phylacteries) and mezuzot (door scrolls).

A work first published in 1858 titled Amirah le-Beth Ya'akov (Words to the House of Jacob, a reference to Exodus 19:2 and Rashi's commentary there) deals with the three areas of practical Jewish law pertaining specifically to women: niddah (separation during menstruation), challah (a tithe from dough) and the lighting of candles on the night of the Shabbat. It has been widely translated and is still in use today.

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