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Two Letters of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Medical Expenses of Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik of Brisk, Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz and Rabbi Shimon Shkop – Vilna, Av 1939
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Two letters from R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Av 1939.
Handwritten by R. Chaim Ozer's scribes (one hand resembling R. Chaim Ozer's own), with several lines in his own handwriting and signatures. Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head rabbi of the London Beit Din. The letters comprise various issues, and relate mainly to R. Abramsky's transfer of funds to cover the medical expenses of R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav, who was traveling to the spa town Krynica-Zdrój (southern Poland) [the Brisker Rav's final trip to Krynica, before the war broke out on his way back to Brisk, compelling him to spend Sukkot in Warsaw and flee with some of his family to Vilna, and from there to Eretz Israel], and to fund the medical expenses of the senior yeshiva deans R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz and R. Shimon Shkop.
In his first letter, dated 18th Av, R. Chaim Ozer writes that he received a letter from the Brisker Rav in Krynica, and he provided him with 500 złoty, and 200 złoty each to R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz and R. Shimon Shkop, at R. Abramsky's expense.
At the beginning of the letter, he mentions a letter of protest he had sent to London, opposing the proposed fixed timing of Kabbalat Shabbat (see next lot). R. Abramsky had expressed the opinion that a sharper tone would have been better, while R. Chaim Ozer responds that he doesn't understand R. Abramsky's intention, explaining that he had attempted to write the letter without slighting Chief Rabbi Hertz, and assuming his mistake was inadvertent. He asks R. Abramsky to send him back the letter with his proposed additions for him to edit and resend.
In the second letter, dated 26th Av, he discusses the protest against changing the time for the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer in London. He states that he had just sent a brief letter (see next lot), asking him to send back his previous message, which he would edit at length.
He goes on to discuss the money transfer to fund the medical expenses of R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav, and yeshiva deans R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz and R. Shimon Shkop, for the sum of 500 złoty, which he had sent to the former two and was to send to the latter.
R. Chaim Ozer concludes the letter with blessings and his signature.
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 letters, 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 occupation) to avoid conscription to the Russian army. In Vilna he was accepted into the Ramailes yeshiva and joined the elite class of students who listened to 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, by 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 world-spanning efforts 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 on behalf of 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 letters reflect some of their cooperation on halachah, public and private affairs and assistance to rabbis.
2 letters, on official stationery. 29 cm. Good condition. Creases and folding marks.
Letters
Letters