Letter of R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. [Vilna], 2nd Shevat 1938.

Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabbi in London and an intimate associate of his. Most of the letter written by his scribe, with two lines at the end handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer himself. The letter relates his health situations and concludes with R. Chaim Ozer's signature. At the end, the scribe adds a greeting and a short handwritten letter signed with his initials [R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky, R. Abramsky's wife's cousin].

The letter discusses various topics. Most of the letter is about fundraisers for Shemitah-observant farmers in Eretz Israel, while R. Chaim Ozer adds his opinion on the irrelevance of Heter Mechirah (an allowance for agricultural work in the Shemitah year by sale of the land to a non-Jew) [in the period after the Arab Revolt, when non-Jewish workers were not employed in the fields].

R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a foremost rabbi of his generation and leader of European Jewry. He was the son of R. David Shlomo Grodzinski Rabbi of Iwye. He was renowned from his childhood for his exceptional brilliance. He entered the Volozhin yeshiva at the young age of 11, and became a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk. At the age of 24, he was appointed rabbi and posek of Vilna, succeeding his father-in-law R. Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnansky, a posek in Vilna (son-in-law of R. Yisrael Salanter). He assumed the yoke of public leadership from a young age, and his opinion was conclusive on all public issues which arose throughout the Jewish world for close to fifty years.

The recipient of the letter,
R. Yechezkel Abramsky (1886-1976), was a confidant and agent of R. Chaim Ozer of Vilna ever since developing close ties with him in his youth while studying under his influence in Vilna. In winter of 1806, the "prodigy of Masty" Yechezkel Abramsky was forced to leave the Telshe yeshiva and flee to Vilna (then under Polish rule) to avoid conscription to the Russian army. In Vilna he was accepted into the Ramailes yeshiva and joined the elite class of students who attended the advanced lectures of R. Chaim Ozer (based on Melech BeYofyo, pp. 29-33).

While subsequently serving as Rabbi of Smilavichy and Slutsk, he served often as R. Chaim Ozer's agent in various communal affairs. R. Abramsky smuggled the manuscript of Part I of his Chazon Yechezkel from Slutsk to his teacher R. Chaim Ozer in Vilna, who was involved in its publication in Vilna, 1925, through his confidant R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky (R. Abramsky's wife's cousin). When R. Abramsky was arrested by the Soviets and sent to Siberia in 1930, R. Chaim Ozer made every possible effort to release him. After his release in 1931, R. Chaim Ozer and the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch joined with R. Abramsky to initiate the project of sending Pesach flour and food packages to Jews under the Bolshevik regime in Russia. Likewise, R. Abramsky was active on missions for R. Chaim Ozer for yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania and for rabbis of Europe. They also cooperated on many public issues, including the struggles for Jewish marriage and against the anti-Semitic laws in Germany and Europe forbidding Jewish shechitah (requiring stunning animals before slaughtering, which renders the meat non-kosher), and on rescue activity for rabbis and yeshivas who fled as refugees to Vilna at the start of the Holocaust. The present letter reflects some of their cooperation on wide-ranging public activities.

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 28.5 cm. Good condition. Light stains and folding marks.