Responsa Letter from Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Zimmerman, Rabbi of Hlusk (Father-in-Law of Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz) ...

Responsa Letter from Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Zimmerman, Rabbi of Hlusk (Father-in-Law of Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz) – Hlusk, Ca. 1880s

Lengthy letter (7 pages) handwritten and signed by R. Avraham Yitzchak HaLevi Zimmerman, Rabbi of Hlusk (later Rabbi of Kremenchuk). Hlusk, ca. 1880s.

Lengthy halachic responsum on the laws of divorce, on annulling an advance notice and ketubah payments – addressed to a certain David Shlomo who contested a divorce performed in R. Avraham Yitzchak's Beit Din. In the responsum he discusses the laws of a divorce where the husband had given an advance notice to annul any future divorce, and on the rulings issued by the Beit Din with respect to monetary payments of the ketubah. R. Avraham Yitzchak addresses the halachic arguments brought up and resolves his opinion humbly and placatingly, also begging the contestant to consider the pain of the divorcee. At the end of the letter he concludes: "…But please hear and listen to me and do not change his words, because this is truly a valuable decision for both of them, and peace is important. The respondent Avraham Yitzchak son of R. Meir HaLevi, residing here in Hlusk".

On the eighth page of the responsum is a draft of a halachic responsum on advance notices, in another hand [possibly handwritten by R. Avraham Yitzchak's brother-in-law, R. Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky – later Rabbi of Orlya and Ihumen].

R. Avraham Yitzchak HaLevi Zimmerman (b. ca. 1850-1860, d. 1917), a leading rabbi of his time. He was the son-in-law of R. Yaakov Moshe Direktor (1809-1879), Rabbi of Mush. Served as Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Hlusk, and established a yeshiva attended by R. Yitzchak Eizik Sher and R. Avraham Noach Paley (R. Yitzchak Eizik Sher later recounted that under him they would study four Talmudic folios daily until learning the majority of the Talmud together). Ca. 1890 he was appointed Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Kremenchuk, and in 1891 he was succeeded in Hlusk by his son-in-law R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz, who also served as dean of the Hlusk yeshiva.

His brother-in-law, R. Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky (1860-1917), Rabbi of Orlya and Ihumen, son of R. Yaakov Moshe Direktor (1809-1879), Rabbi of Mush (Novaya Mysh; a student of the Volozhin yeshiva and a famous wonderworker). In 1872, his father sent him off with a caretaker to celebrate his bar mitzvah in Jerusalem, to absorb its holiness and receive blessings from Jerusalem rabbis (whereupon he changed his surname to Yerushalimsky or Ish-Yerushalayim). He studied in the Volozhin yeshiva, and later married the daughter of R. Yaakov David Wilovsky (Ridvaz), Rabbi of Slutsk. In 1892 he was appointed Rabbi of Orlya (near Grodno), and in 1902 he was appointed Rabbi of Ihumen (Chervyen, Minsk region). After his untimely demise, his teacher R. Chaim Soloveitchik, Rabbi of Brisk, declared, "I do not know two other rabbis of his stature in this generation in all of Russia and Poland" (Sorasky, Melech BeYofyo, p. 49). He was the father-in-law of R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head of the London Beit Din, author of Chazon Yechezkel.

Sheet of 4 leaves (8 written pages). 22 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Some leaves of the sheet are still attached.