Lengthy Responsum Handwritten by Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah Leib Eliezerov

Lengthy Responsum Handwritten by Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah Leib Eliezerov

Lengthy responsum (8 pages) handwritten and signed by Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah Leib Eliezerov. Oran (Algeria), Wednesday, 21 Cheshvan [1887].

Responsum letter on a woman who was betrothed to multiple men. R. Eliezerov discusses the issue at length and proffers a ruling.

Interestingly, this letter was sent from Oran, Algeria in 1887, while R. Eliezerov was an emissary sent to raise funds for the Jewish settlement in Hebron at the young age of 24. Little is known about this voyage, which R. Eliezerov describes in the letter.

The letter was printed, with textual variants, in his book Responsa She'elat Shlomo (Jerusalem, 2002), section 55.

R. Shlomo Yehudah Leib Eliezerov (1863-1952), rabbi and leader of the Chabad and Ashkenazi community in Hebron, and emissary to the Jewish community of Bukhara-Samarkand. Founder of the Magen Avot and Torat Emet yeshivas in Hebron. His father R. Eliezer Shimon Kazarnovsky was a grandson of Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel Slonim, daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe. In 1873 he immigrated with his parents to Eretz Israel and settled in Hebron, where he studied under R. Shimon Menashe Chaikin and R. Eliyahu Mani. He traveled frequently to North Africa and Uzbekistan as an emissary of the Sephardic Hebron community, and in 1897 he was appointed chief rabbi of the Bukhara-Samarkand region, where he changed his surname to Eliezerov (after his father). In 1903 he was appointed Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Hebron community, and after World War I he settled in Jerusalem until his passing. His halachic responsa are printed in She'elat Shlomo.

[4] leaves (8 handwritten pages). Approx. 21 cm. Good condition. Folds. Stains and wear (mainly to last page). Small marginal tears, reinforced with tape.