R. Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) was a rabbi and writer; leader and foremost exponent of Orthodoxy in Germany in the 19th century. Born in Hamburg, Hirsch studied Talmud with his grandfather Mendel Frankfurter there. His education was influenced by the enlightened Orthodox rabbis Jacob Ettlinger and Isaac Bernays, and by his father, R. Raphael (who had changed his surname from Frankfurter to Hirsch), an opponent of the Reform congregation at the temple in Hamburg but also a supporter of hakham Bernays who included secular studies in the curriculum of the talmud torah of that city. Bernays had a great influence on Hirsch's philosophy of Judaism. Hirsch attended the University of Bonn for a year (1829), where he studied classical languages, history, and philosophy.

In 1830 Hirsch became Landrabbiner of the principality of Oldenburg. During his 11 years in office he wrote his most significant works, Neunzehn Briefe ueber Judentum "Nineteen Letters on Judaism" 1836; and Choreb, (1837, 1921; Horeb - Essays on Israel's "Duties" in the Diaspora, ed. and tr. by I. Grunfeld, 1962). In these two works, which together form a complete unit, and were designed for young men and women with a consciousness of Judaism, Hirsch laid down his basic views on Judaism which were elaborated and explained in his subsequent writings.

In 1841 Hirsch moved to Emden, where he served as rabbi of Aurich and Osnabrueck in Hanover. From 1846 to 1851 he lived in Nikolsburg (Mikulov) as Landesrabbiner of Moravia. Here Hirsch took an energetic part in the struggle to obtain emancipation for Austrian and Moravian Jewry, during the revolution of 1848. After the March revolution of 1848 he was unanimously elected chairman of the Committee for the Civil and Political Rights of the Jews in Moravia. In Nikolsburg he also applied himself to reorganizing the internal structure of Moravian Jewry and drafted a constitution for a central Jewish religious authority for the whole country. The extreme Orthodox community he served had reservations about the intermediate position he adopted between the Orthodox and Reform. Some of the customs he practiced, his wearing a robe during services and especially his method of teaching (his rejection of casuistic argumentation and his refusal to disregard study of the Bible for that of the halakhah) aroused opposition among the extreme Orthodox element in Nikolsburg. In 1851, Hirsch was called to serve as rabbi of the Orthodox Adass Jeschurun in Frankfort on the Main, a position he held for 37 years. Here Hirsch developed and crystallized his conception of Judaism adopted a practical attitude to the problems which confronted the German Jews of that period. In addition, the Orthodox congregation of Frankfort and its institutions embodied Hirsch's ideas, served as a paradigm and prototype for neo-Orthodoxy, which continued to develop in Germany and abroad.

Hirsch's importance as a religious spiritual leader, his wide influence as a preacher and teacher, organizer and writer, made him a dedicated champion of Orthodoxy in its controversy with the Reform-liberal Judaism. While advocating strict adherence to halakhah, Hirsch tried to find a solution to the political and cultural challenges presented in modern life to Judaism. He considered his view of Judaism not as a system of philosophical speculation but as an explication of the Sinaitic revelation. Despite widespread opposition to his ideas from many circles in German Jewry his personal qualities won their respect and admiration.