Letter of Halachic Responsum from Rabbi Meir Arik – With Blessings for a Good Year

Lengthy letter (4 pages) handwritten and signed by R. Meir Arik, Rabbi of Yazlovets. Yazlovets, days of Selichot 1912.
A halachic responsum concerning laws of a misguided betrothal, in a case when a person married an insane woman "who does not have any intelligence whatsoever, to distinguish between summer and winter, and she is like an animal in form of a human being…". The responsum was sent to R. Moshe Stern Rabbi of Polien (Poienile de sub Munte) and to his son-in-law R. David Sperber, posek in that city (a disciple of R. Meir Arik). R. Meir relates in it to a responsum by R. Shlomo Leib Tabak, author of Erech Shai, on this topic. This responsum was published based on a manuscript in Responsa Imrei Yosher HaChadash (Jerusalem, 1997), Even HaEzer section 78, pp. 71-72. R. Meir Arik concludes the letter with blessings for a good year: "I hereby seek their wellbeing wholeheartedly, and bless them with a good inscribing and sealing. Meir Arik, Rabbi of this city".
R. Meir Arik (1855-1925), a leading Galician Torah scholar, served as rabbi of Yazlovets, Buchach and Tarnów. He was a disciple of R. Yaakov of Rimalov (Hrymailiv) and of the Maharsham. From 1885, he served as rabbi of Yazlovets, in place of his teacher the Maharsham who moved to Berezhany. From 1912, he served as rabbi of Buchach. During WWI, he fled to Vienna, studying Torah there with his friend R. Yosef Engel. Following the war, he returned to Poland and was appointed rabbi of Tarnów. Many of Poland's leading Torah scholars were his disciples, the most renowned ones include R. Meir Shapiro of Lublin, R. Aryeh Tzvi Frumer – the Gaon of Koziegłowy, R. David Sperber Gaon of Brașov (recipient of this letter), R. Yehuda Horowitz – Rebbe of Dzikov, R. Meshulam Roth author of Kol Mevaser, R. Reuven Margolies and R. Yehoshua Erenberg Rabbi of Tel Aviv.
He published many books, yet most of his manuscripts were lost during his escape to Vienna during WWI, including five large volumes of halachic responsa. His books: Sheyarei Tahara on Mishnayot Order Taharot (Kolomyia, 1890); Minchat Kenaot on Tractate Sota (Lviv, 1894); Minchat Pitim on Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De'ah and Even HaEzer (Munkacs, 1898-1908); Tal Torah (Vienna, 1921); Responsa Imrei Yosher part I (Munkacs, 1913), part II (Kraków-Tarnów, 1925); and other books containing selections of his Torah thought and letters: Minchat Aharon – Me'irat Einayim (Brooklyn, 1978) and Imrei Yosher HaChadash – Tal Torah HaChadash (Jerusalem, 1997).
[1] double leaf, 4 pages, approx. 22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Minor tears and dampstains.