The Sheva Kehillos

Memories of Torah Life in the Western Hungarian Oberland Communities

The holy communities of Burgenland, which were home to many of that generation's gedolim. Of those were Rabbeinu Akiva Eiger, Rabbeinu the Chasam Sofer, his son Rav Shimon Sofer. These towns were all holy communities, with gedolei Yisrael as rabbanim, and with yeshivos kedoshos.

Rav Moshe Konig (1844 - 1914), an erudite and humble Torah scholar from the Hungarian town of Kobersdorf, was the prototype of a talmid chacham produced in the famed Sheva Kehillos, seven distinct Hungarian communities in the Burgenland district from the early 1700s until their decimation with the Anschluss in 1938.

Rav Konig's personal biography, intertwined with the general story of life in the Sheva Kehillos profiling many of the great luminaries who served these communities, opens a window into the illuminating world and pious deeds of a world that was, filled with uncompromising adherence to halachah and tradition.

This comprehensive historical documentary, featuring over 200 photos, highlights the flourishing communities and their yeshivahs, and details the rabbanim who served there.

How wonderful it is that you compiled divrei Torah and stories about Yiddishkeit and yiras Hashem... " HaRav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss Av Beis Din, Edah HaChareidis, Yerushalayim