Lengthy letter (2 pages), handwritten and signed by R. Isser Zalman Meltzer, dean of the Etz Chaim yeshiva. Jerusalem, 9th Cheshvan [November] 1947.
Addressed to his friend R. Yechezkel Abramsky, author of Chazon Yechezkel, head rabbi of the Slutsk and London Batei Din (and R. Isser Zalman's successor as Rabbi of Slutsk). R. Isser Zalman writes to him of his trip to England to his intimate associate R. Yitzchak Epstein, on behalf of the Otzar HaPoskim institute.
In the letter, R. Isser Zalman mentions his initiative to establish this important project of assembling the views of the poskim on the laws of Even HaEzer. R. Isser Zalman learned the importance of publicizing lesser-known opinions from the well-stocked library of R. Chaim Berlin, Rabbi of Moscow, in his home in Jerusalem, which was formerly R. Chaim Berlin's home. When he suggested this to R. Yitzchak Eizik Herzog, he had the idea of arranging it in a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, modeled after the Darchei Teshuvah.
R. Isser Zalman stresses the importance of employing rabbis who were Holocaust survivors and lost their family, in order to provide them with a living honorably.
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" – considering him a student who contributes to 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.
[1] leaf, official stationery, written on both sides. 28 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and small tears.
