Aaron Chorin

Aaron Chorin (Hebrew: אהרן חארין‎; August 3, 1766 – August 24, 1844) was a Hungarian rabbi and pioneer of early religious reform. He favored the use of the organ and of prayers in the vernacular, and was instrumental in founding schools along modern lines. Chorin became a pivotal figure for reformers, albeit he himself still operated inside a traditional framework. He also interested himself in public affairs—he took an active part in the efforts for Jewish emancipation, and was very influential with the state authorities.

Chorin was born in Hranice (Přerov District), Moravia, Austria (now in the Czech Republic) in 1766. At the age of fourteen he studied in the yeshivah of Rabbi Jeremias in Mattersdorf, Hungary, and two years later at Prague in the higher Talmudical school of Ezekiel Landau. Here he also learned German. Chorin married on December 26, 1783, and entered commerce; but his business career being unsuccessful, he accepted the post of rabbi at Arad in the spring of 1789, which he occupied till his death.

In 1798, Chorin published his first pamphlet, Imre No'am (אמרי נועם Words of Pleasantness), in which he argued that as the sturgeon had scales it was permitted as food according to Scripture. His opinion, although following that of Landau and other authorities, was strongly opposed by Mordecai Benet and his partisans. Rabbi Isaac Krieshaber of Páks wrote a refutation, Maḳḳel No'am (מקל נועם Staff of Pleasantness), which called forth a second pamphlet by Chorin, Shiryon Ḳasḳassim (שריון קשקשים Armour of Quills), (Prague, 1799).

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