Torah Letter from Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz – Hlusk, 1897 – Response from His Uncle Rabbi Yisrael Yehonatan ...

Torah Letter from Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz – Hlusk, 1897 – Response from His Uncle Rabbi Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky

Two letters – Torah correspondence between R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz during his tenure as Rabbi and yeshiva dean in Hlusk, with his uncle (his mother-in-law's brother) R. Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky, Rabbi of Orlya. [Hlusk and Orlya, Nisan-Iyar 1897].

• Letter handwritten and signed by R. Baruch Dov (Ber) Leibowitz, "To my distinguished, dear uncle… R. Yisrael Yehonatan… head rabbi of the Orlya Beit Din". [Hlusk, 1897].

• Draft of a letter of response on Torah subjects (3 pages; unsigned), handwritten by his uncle R. Yisrael Yehonatan Yerushalimsky, Rabbi of Orlya. [Orlya], [3rd Iyar] 1897.

R. Baruch Ber writes to his uncle asking him to inform him whether "his lofty son" has decided to study with him in the Hlusk yeshiva: "My dear beloved uncle, following the past postcard I sent you about your lofty son, I'm unsure, since I was in doubt whether you would decide to send him or not. One way or another, I hope that another time I will be the one to ask you to send him; if He Who grants knowledge will help and assist me to deliver the lecture easily and correctly, then I will be stronger and will rush for the good of the young of the holy flock. For now, whatever you do, if you send him I will try to take care to supervise his study. The words of his relative, blessing him with blessing and success, loving and respecting him, Baruch Dov son of R. Shmuel David".

On the verso of the leaf, R. Baruch adds a Torah query related to the laws of menstruation periods, and asks his uncle to look into it: "Please let me know, since I cannot look into this, since I don't have any of the books of the rishonim". He adds: "I request you look at the novellae I wrote for my brother-in-law, to read it and send feedback. Your friend and relative. I request you respond by priority mail".

In the letter of response, R. Yerushalimsky writes: "To the son-in-law of my brother-in-law R. Baruch Dov, after lovingly seeking his welfare: I received your letter. And as for the question I was asked, had I not seen your request at the end of your letter to respond by priority mail, I would not have taken upon myself to look into this, since among my many sins I can find no time at all fit for study at the present, but I was concerned that perhaps you had been asked some halachic query about this…". At the end of the draft letter that was kept by R. Yerushalimsky, he adds further: "After sending the above, I saw in Pardes Rimonim…".

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 passing, 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.

R. Baruch Dov (Ber) Leibowitz (1864-1939), author of Birkat Shmuel, leading Torah disseminator in his times. He was a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk in the Volozhin yeshiva, and the son-in-law of R. Avraham Yitzchak Zimmerman, Rabbi of Hlusk (son-in-law of R. Yaakov Moshe Direktor, Rabbi of Mush). After his father-in-law went to serve as rabbi of Kremenchuk, he succeeded him in Hlusk and established a yeshiva. After a 13-year tenure, he was asked to head the Knesset Beit Yitzchak yeshiva in Slabodka. During World War I, he wandered with the yeshiva to Minsk, Kremenchuk and Vilna, before finally settling in Kamenets. He authored Birkat Shmuel on Talmudic topics. His teachings and writings are classics of in-depth yeshiva study.

Letter of R. Baruch Ber: [1] leaf, 21 cm. Written on both sides. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and tears to margins.

Letter of R. Yerushalimsky: [1] double leaf, 21 cm. 3 written pages. Fair-good condition. Stains. Wear and folding marks. Small marginal open tears, slightly affecting text.

A facsimile of R. Baruch Ber's letter appears in: Melech BeYofyo, Jerusalem 2004, p. 47; HaRav Domeh LeMalach, Jerusalem 2005, p. 24.