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There is a essay on Aggados written by R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, sometimes it appears in loose translation in English here and there. But I feel that doesn't convey its meaning properly (I suppose).

Is there a Hebrew (or maybe German) version of this available online? And perhaps, something easy to copy and paste off of. Thanks.

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    Maybe in his collective writings – sam Jun 4 '19 at 0:43
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    Is the Hebrew translation any more authoritative than the English one? – DonielF Jun 4 '19 at 1:03
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    @DonielF as I pointed out in my answer Rabbi Hirsch wrote the original letter in Hebrew. – user6591 Jun 4 '19 at 11:42
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You can read the hebrew version here. Keep in mind that Rabbi Hirsch wrote the original letter in Hebrew and as far as I know there is no German translation of that.

Everything from here and below is just lihagdil Torah viyadir.

You should be able to find the Hebrew version that professor Mordechai Breuer submitted for the Teves installment of Hamayan 5736.

According to the footnote in Hirsch's collected writings volume 9 page 201, that is what they based their version off of.

And when I say you should be able to, I mean I can't verify that, as HebrewBooks doesn't seem to have that particular volume. (Why? Who knows maybe they censored it because there is a fringe opinion that Rabbi Hirsch didn't write that piece. Who knows.)

The article and snippets you see online are almost certainly from Rabbi Yehoshua Leiman's translation of the original letters. They were published in his Light magazine. If you've found that translation wanting, perhaps give the version in the collected writings a try.

Also, the aforementioned footnote mentions that the originals belong to a collection of Hirsch letters purchased by Bar-Ilan University, so try your luck with them.

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  • +1. Perhaps the authorship is questioned bk of the gap between the year said to be written and its publication. But that is my assumption and thats for another question. Tnx anyway. – Renato Grun Jun 5 '19 at 0:54
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    IIRC part of the reasoning given was that the letter was in Hebrew and not in Hirsch's own handwriting. Which shouldn't warrant a claim of forgery considering it was common to have copies written by others. But the main push for the claim was that 'Hirsch couldn't have written it'. This is a dubious approach. When Yaavetz doesn't like the Moreh Nevuchim and says Rambam didn't write it because he couldn't have, or when Artscroll deletes a Rashbam on the Torah because he couldn't have written that comment, we are left with agendas pushing scholarly opinions. (I'm not a fan of that approach.) – user6591 Jun 5 '19 at 1:11

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