The Rabbinic Affair in Košice – A Response Letter to the Kashoy Community from the Brilliant Rabbi ...

The Rabbinic Affair in Košice – A Response Letter to the Kashoy Community from the Brilliant Rabbi Betzalel Stern, Author of B’Tzel HaChochmah.

A particularly wonderful letter, written and signed by the brilliant Rabbi Betzalel Stern, author of *B’Tzel HaChochmah*, of blessed memory, to the Kashoy (Košice) community regarding their request for him to assume the rabbinic position in their city (after World War II).

"...I hereby confirm receipt of your esteemed letter... and I was greatly honored to read that your honorable community desires that I bear the burden of the word of G-d in your distinguished congregation... and I thank G-d, who has granted me favor in your eyes due to the merit of my holy ancestors of blessed memory, may G-d avenge their blood...".

This appointment, however, did not come to fruition, and instead, as is well known, the great Rabbi Raphael Blum Zt''l, was appointed to the position.

This is a historically significant rabbinic affair, which seems to be largely unknown!

Rabbi Betzalel Stern (1901–1989) was one of the leading halachic authorities of Hungarian Jewry after the war. He was the son of the great Rabbi Avraham Stern, author of Melitzei Esh, and the Mesader Chilukim V’Shitot  Dayan of of Nové Zámky From a young age, he was recognized as a prodigious genius. At the age of 19, he was crowned with the authority of Hora'ah by the great rabbis of the generation, including Rabbi Moshe Frey, Av Beit Din of Szeged (a descendant of the Chasam Sofer), who wrote in amazement about ordaining such a young scholar: "...for he is an outstanding young man... surpassing all his peers by ten degrees and worthy of the highest honor... and every novel idea found in the words of the Shach and Taz are clear to him." (Printed in the introduction to Shu”t B’Tzel HaChochmah).

He studied at the Pressburg Yeshiva and was a beloved student of Rabbi Akiva Sofer, author of Daas Sofer. He corresponded in halachic matters with the great rabbis of his generation, including the Rav of Tchebin. He served in various rabbinic positions from 1942 in the cities of Hermenstadt, Papa, Melbourne, Vienna, and in 1982, he settled in Jerusalem. His six-volume Shu”t B’Tzel HaChochmah is one of the most important responsa works of our generation and is frequently cited by halachic authorities. Among his sons-in-law were the great rabbis Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin Schreiber - Sofer, Av Beit Din of Pressburg Zt''l, and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Schlesinger Shlita, Av Beit Din of Geneva (Switzerland).

1 page, in very good condition.