Soviet Passport of Rabbi Shlomo Elyashov, Author of the Leshem – Documentation of His Immigration to Eretz Israel ...

Soviet Passport of Rabbi Shlomo Elyashov, Author of the Leshem – Documentation of His Immigration to Eretz Israel in 1923-1924
Soviet passport of the holy kabbalist R. Shlomo Elyashov, the Leshem. Gomel (Homel), 1923.
Russian passport, printed in Russian and French, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. This passport discloses details pertaining to the immigration to Eretz Israel of the Leshem at the age of 82, together with his son-in-law, daughter and grandson: R. Avraham Popka-Elyashov, Mrs. Chaya Musha (Musia), and the child Yosef Shalom.
The passport was issued in Gomel (Homel) in November 1923, citing Eretz Israel as the destination of their journey. The identification details were completed by hand: Age: 82. Year of Birth: 1841. Place of Birth: Kaunas province. The leaves of the passport bear stamps, attesting to their journey from Homel, via Moscow, Odessa and Turkey: 1. Stamp of the Soviet Republic, from Gomel, November 1, 1923 – allowing exit from the Soviet Union to Eretz Israel, via Odessa. Russian. 2. Visa entry stamp to Eretz Israel from Moscow, November 14, 1923. English. 3. Stamp from Odessa, February 15, 1924. 4. Stamp from Turkey dated February 29, 1924 with details in Turkish and stamp of the Russian embassy in Turkey. 5. Stamp of the Government of Palestine dated March 7, 1924 (according to their immigration certificate issued by the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency in Constantinople – see Kedem Auction 62 Item 280 – the date they registered in Constantinople for immigration was March 2, 1924, and they actually left Constantinople on a ship headed for Jaffa on March 6, 1924). The photograph was torn off this passport.
The holy Kabbalist R. Shlomo Elyashiv (Elyashov, Elyashoff), author of the Leshem (1841-1926) was a leading Lithuanian Kabbalist. His notes on Etz Chaim were printed in the Warsaw 1891 edition under the title Hagahot HaRav SheVaCh (Shlomo ben Chaim Chaikel), appellation the Sephardi rabbis were fond of calling him by. His series of books on Kabbalah named Leshem Shevo V'Achlama were published in 1909-1948, and are considered fundamental works on the study of Kabbalah. He was received in Jerusalem with great honor by the leading Sephardi and Ashkenazi Kabbalists, especially R. Shaul Dweck, dean of the Rechovot HaNahar yeshiva who had exchanged correspondence with him all the years, and the Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, his disciple in Kabbalah already during the time the Leshem lived in Šiauliai. His was joined in his immigration to Eretz Israel by his son-in-law from Homel - R. Avraham Elyashov (Elyashiv; 1878-1943), his daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Musha (Musia, 1881-1952) and their only son R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1910-2012), then a young boy of thirteen and a half, who later became one of the leading Halachic authorities of this generation.
Booklet, 17.5 cm. 8 leaves. Good-fair condition. Lacking photograph. Open tear in place of photograph at the center of leaf [3]. Original, fabric covered wrappers, detached and slightly worn.