An Episode in Metz, France
Two Hundred Years Ago
During the period of the Tosafists, Metz boasted a significant Jewish community. Rabbi Eliezer ben Shemuel, a disciple of Rabbenu Tam and the author of Sefer Yereim as well as other scholars lived in that city. In1365 the Jews were expelled from Metz. About 200 years later when the city was taken over by the French, Jews were again permitted to settle there. The new community developed gradually and in the eighteenth century was one of the most important in Western Europe. Famous rabbinic authorities officiated in Metz as rabbis and Roshei Yeshiva.
Among the first rabbis, who came from afar, to serve the community, was Rabbi Moshe Kohen of Narol, a survivor of the Chmelnickiy massacres (1648-1649). He composed Bakasha , a prayer for those slain in the massacres. The Jews of Metz took upon themselves and their offspring to recite this prayer every year on the Shabbat before Shavuot and on the Shabbat before Tisha B’av (Shabbat Hazon).
Famous rabbis who officiated in Metz in the 18th century included:
Rabbi Avraham Broda. He was Rosh Yeshiva in Prague before coming to Metz. Later he was chosen rabbi of Frankfurt.
Rabbi Yaakov Reischer, author of responsa Shvut Yaakov, and other books.
Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, author of Pnei Yehoshua. He too was chosen as rabbi of Frankfurt after having served in Metz.
Rabbi Yonthan Eybeschuetz. He was Dayyan in Prague, when he received the call to Metz. Later he was rabbi of the “three communities” of Hamburg, Altona and Wandsbek.
Rabbi Aaron Leob Gunzberg author of the Sha’agat Aryeh. He was a rabbi In Minsk and Volozhin prior to his coming to Metz. He served there for twenty years until his death at the venerable age of ninety.
There was also Hebrew printing in Metz. The first Hebrew printer was Moshe May, one of the leaders of the community, who opened his print shop about 1763. After having been active as printer for some years, he found himself in financial difficulties. “Unable to face his creditors, May left the city,” writes. H. D. Friedberg, a historian of Hebrew printing.
The print shop was taken over by members of his family. Years later May returned to the city and engaged anew in the printing of Hebrew books. One of the books which again carried the name of Moshe May as printer was a new edition of the abovementioned Bakasha by Rabbi Moshe Kohen of Narol with the addition of several prayers for the High Holidays. Hoshanot, Blessings for the New Moon, etc. On one of the last pages, Moshe May printed some laws and customs relating to Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret and then tells of G-d’s kindness, of the well known miracle, which He did for me and my family in the night of Shemini Atzeret in the year 5548″… the years in which the small book was printed.
They were sitting in the Sukkah “which was standing in the air of the yard, more than two heights of man high” (the Sukkah was probably built on a balcony) when all of a sudden one of the beams broke and all the boards, which rested on it, fell down into the yard. “All those who were sitting on that side fell down, with the table, the benches and all the vessels, earthen and glass ones, falling upon them.”
All the vessels were broken, but none of the nine members of May’s family who fell into the yard, was seriously hurt.
Moshe May continues, “I the tenth person, remained sitting on a chair, which stood on a small piece of woood that stuck to the wall without any support beneath.”
Alarmed by the noise of the crash of the collapsing Sukka, people rushed to May’s yard. They freed him from his uncomfortable position.
May concludes his story by expressing joy that the new years 5549 – is approaching and soon he will be able to observe the mitzvah of Sukka and make the blessing (over a miracle) at the place where a miracle happened to us.”
The book was finished in print on the first day of Rosh Hodesh Ellul 5548.
The Jewish Press, October 9, 1987