P'sak Me-Bet Din Zedek (Rabbinical Ban against an Unknown Author [Saul Berlin]), Hamburg: 1789

In early 1789 a volume entitled Mizpeh Yokte'el appeared in Berlin under the pseudonym of Obadiah ben Barukh, Ish Polonyah. The work constituted a scathing critique of an edition of novellae by Raphael Cohen, Chief Rabbi of the Triple Community (Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck). The rabbinate responded almost immediately by issuing a herem, or excommunication, against both the offending work and its, as yet unknown, author. The ban, promulgated in this broadside, was issued on March 25, 1789 by the Bet Din Zedek (Rabbinical Court of Judgement) in Hamburg and publicly proclaimed in the synagogues of the community on the following day. 

The offending volume, Mizpeh Yokte'el  was actually the work of Saul Berlin (1740-1794), formerly Chief Rabbi of Frankfort on the Oder, who had retired from his rabbinical post sometime earlier, having become disenchanted with what he considered antiquated rabbinical authority. Settling in Berlin, he became a fierce adherent of the Haskalah group whose members, known as the Me'assefim, were the pupils and admirers of Mendelssohn and Wessely.

Ironically, the ban against Saul Berlin's writings was later joined by his own father, the distinguished Tzvi Hirsch, Chief Rabbi of Berlin. When the latter discovered the true authorship of Mizpeh Yokte'el, he recanted his denunciation and sought to vindicate his son in the face of mounting condemnation. The entire situation was exacerbated when further questionable writings attributed to Saul Berlin came to light in future years. The resultant rabbinical squabble between the accusers and defenders of Saul Berlin created a rift in Ashkenazic rabbinic circles, second only to the famous controversy between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschuetz. Though the text of the herem is recorded by Landshut, we have discovered no recorded copy of the present broadside.