Challenges to Judaism: 18th & 19th Century

The Industrial Revolution changed the world of the 18th century, leading ultimately to many of the issues we will explore in this series. In this class, we examine the halachic discussion and rabbinic dispute about the permissibility of using machines to bake matzot for Pesach. The issues raised on both sides of the debate mirror many of the future discussions of technology and Judaism, and resonate until today.

In the 19th century, a roaring monster of iron and steam tore through the pastoral landscapes of Eastern Europe, permanently shattering centuries of isolation. The expansion of the commercial railway system did more than just transport goods; it completely re-engineered the human experience of time, space, and community. For the Jewish world, this industrial revolution sparked a profound internal crisis and an era of unprecedented transformation.

This class explores the tense, beautiful, and sometimes tragic collision between modern infrastructure and ancient tradition.

We look at the halachot of riding the train, and other diverse ways Jewish society responded to the tracks. We examine how some Hasidic masters like the Trisker Maggid fought to keep the trains away to protect spiritual purity, while others, like the Tzemach Tzedek and the Ruzhiner Rebbe, who urged their followers to invest in railroad stocks as a physical preparation for cosmic redemption, and the Gerer and Belzer Courts grew large because they were located in railway cities. The railroad also changed how the world, and Jews, think about time, removed barriers that enabled local customs to flourish, led to mass migration and also to the organized spread of antisemitism.

In this class, we look at how the policies of three Tsars, culminating in the Kiselev Commission, shaped Eastern European rabbinic attitudes to secular education.

This is a topic I’ve been thinking about for over 30 years, but I’ve never given a class on it before. How did the Jews and Rabbinic leadership of Britain, Europe and USA respond to the 19th century abolition movement, which was inspired by the rationalism of the Enlightenment? We begin with the Torah, Mishna and Talmud, spend some time with Rambam, but mainly focus on Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Moses Montefiore, Morris Raphall and the responses to his sermon.