16-page booklet, including a lengthy letter (approx. one and a half pages), handwritten and signed by R. Isser Zalman Meltzer, dean of the Etz Chaim yeshiva, and 14-page handwritten booklet, with notes of R. Isser Zalman on Chazon Yechezkel. Jerusalem, Sivan 1926.
First two pages handwritten and signed by R. Isser Zalman Meltzer, and next 14 pages are a handwritten scribal copy. Addressed to his friend R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head rabbi of the Slutsk Beit Din (R. Isser Zalman's successor as Rabbi of Slutsk). R. Isser Zalman writes: "…I received your worthy and lofty book with your letters at the time, and forgive me for delaying to answer… And since I had already begun to write some things on your worthy book and Torah novellae, I didn't want to respond emptyhanded, and day by day I was delayed from finishing my response. Now, thank G-d, I am better, and I finished my letter on the Torah novellae, which I also had copied in neat handwriting…".
R. Isser Zalman Meltzer goes on to answer R. Yechezkel Abramsky's question, regarding whether he should send his son to study in a yeshiva in Eretz Israel, and further stresses the importance of Chazon Yechezkel: "Regarding your lofty book, I looked at it in many places and I found it to be a very lofty book. And I saw how much toil and wisdom is set between its lines. And I can tell 'part of its praise in your presence', that I have found lofty and straightforward novellae, and interpretations that are beneficial and highly necessary to 'explain everything difficult' in the Tosefta, and in truth I also looked at some places far from the beginning of the book… May G-d be with you, and may the verse 'Wisdom sings outside' be fulfilled of you and may your fame spread afar, in accordance with your lofty powers, and may you have prominence in all cities in the great city in which you will reside in honor and glory, and may G-d assist you to complete your work on the entire Tosefta. Your friend, loving you and seeking your welfare, Isser Zalman Meltzer".
R. Isser Zalman Meltzer (1870-1953), author of Even HaAzel. A leading Torah scholar of Lithuania and Jerusalem, he was born in Mir and studied in the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv and R. Chaim of Brisk (who esteemed the young prodigy "Zunye" highly, and would say that "when Zunyele opens his mouth, the pipes of his brain open up" – as a student who increases his teachers' knowledge). After his marriage he served as the first yeshiva dean of the Knesset Yisrael yeshiva in Slabodka along with R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein, and later moved to Slutsk with 14 elite disciples, where he established a large yeshiva and subsequently succeeded the Ridvaz as Rabbi of the city. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1924 and was appointed dean of the Etz Chaim yeshiva. He was also a leader of Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah, and father-in-law of R. Aharon Kotler, dean of the Kletsk and Lakewood yeshivas (and also headed the Independent Educational System).
The recipient,
R. Yechezkel Abramsky, author of Chazon Yechezkel (1886-1976), head rabbi of the Beit Din of Slutsk and London, was a friend of R. Isser Zalman from before World War I, when R. Isser Zalman served as Rabbi of Slutsk and R. Abramsky served as Rabbi of Smolyan and Smilavichy. In 1923, when R. Isser Zalman was obliged to flee the Bolsheviks in Russia, he recommended R. Abramsky to serve as his successor as Rabbi in Slutsk. During his tenure in Slutsk, he began his magnum opus, the Chazon Yechezkel on the Tosefta. The manuscript of the first part of Chazon Yechezkel was smuggled from Slutsk to R. Chaim Ozer in Vilna, who had it printed in Vilna in 1925 by R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky (R. Abramsky's wife's cousin), R. Chaim Ozer's confidant and scribe. In 1930 R. Abramsky was arrested and exiled to Siberia by the Bolshevik authorities. When R. Abramsky was released in 1932, he first reached Lithuania and later that year traveled to serve as Rabbi of the Machazikei HaDat community in London, and from 1935 as head rabbi of the London Beit Din, until his retirement and immigration to Jerusalem in 1951.
[2], 14 pages. 27 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Folding marks and tears. Letters deleted on last page on folds. Detached leaves, without binding.
