was the only part of Hungary in which Hasidism, though frowned upon by many rabbis and laypeople for the changes it introduced, gained influence. It became the base of support for the more radical Orthodox rabbis. Hildesheimer's virtually uncontested dominance came to an end in the mid-1860s. Firstly, the disciples of Sofer now held senior rabbinical posts and were confident enough. More importantly, he was opposed by a new extremist clique of rabbis, led by Hillel Lichtenstein, who was assisted by his son-in-law Akiva Yosef Schlesinger and his disciple Chaim Sofer. These radicals, though all Oberlander, were popular with the hasidim of Unterland. They regarded themselves as the true heirs of Moses Sofer and vehemently opposed any sort of modernization. They appeared on the scene with the publication of Schlesinger's book "Heart of the Hebrew" (Lev ha'Ivri) in 1863. He and his associates believed Hildesheimer's modernist approach to be the true danger for his public perception as strictly pious legitimized secular influences; Chaim Sofer wrote of him: The wicked Hildesheimer is the horse and chariot of the Evil Inclination, all his successes were not attained naturally, but only because the Archangel of Esau rides him. All the heretics in the last century did not seek to undermine the Law and the Faith as he does.. To them, the Neologs were already totally outside the boundaries of Judaism, and they preached for having them anathematized. Lichtenstein's disciples faced a problem of their own, as their extremist ideology found little support in mainstream Jewish Law: "these issues," wrote Michael Silber, "even most of the religious reforms, fell into gray areas not easily treated within Halakhah. It was often too flexible or ambiguous, at times silent, or worse yet, embarrassingly lenient." To secure his positions, Schlesinger ventured outside of normative Law into the realm of Aggadah (Lore), drawing mainly from Kabbalah and especially the Book of Radiance. In what was considered a relatively moderate statement for him, he wrote "Wherever the Talmud does not conflict with the Book of Radiance, the ruling shall be according to the latter." Their attempt to base their harsh rigidity on these sources irritated the highest Hungarian rabbinical authorities, who while sympathetic to their struggle against modernity could not accept such "unorthodox" means. In the next two years, the Orthodox rabbis of Hungary were split into three distinct camps along consecutive fault lines. In 1864, Hildesheimer seized upon