Ma'aseh Rav: Handwritten Letter from Rabbi Nachum Partzovitz. Written on Chol HaMo'ed!

Ma'aseh Rav: Handwritten Letter from Rabbi Nachum Partzovitz. Written on Chol HaMo'ed!

Lengthy and significant Holocaust letter, both from the perspective of its content and also due to the date on which it was written - during the intermediate days of Passover, when melachah is forbidden, including writing, that is not for the purpose of preventing a loss. The letter is entirely handwritten and signed by the glory of Lithuanian yeshivahs, the prodigy Nachum Partzovitz, later rosh yeshivah of Mir, from when he was a young man studying in the United States (after the exile in Shanghai), when he was known as the "ilui Rabbi Nachum Truker." [New York, c. 1948]

The letter was sent to London, to Rabbi Zeidel (Yitzchak Tzvi) Siemiatycki, son-in-law of the renowned gaon Rabbi Moshe Schneider, rosh yeshivah of Torat Emet in Frankfurt and in London. It discusses the fate of a Talmudic scholar named Rabbi Shlomo Schechter whose trace was lost after the Holocaust. The letter mentions the gaon Rabbi Simchah Wasserman, eldest son of Rabbi Elchanan.

Due to the urgency of this letter, it was written by Rabbi Nachum during chol hamoed when such activity is usually forbidden. This is, therefore, a ma'aseh rav demonstrating the rare halachah about how one is to write on chol hamoed, when the matter cannot be delayed - how lengthy it can be, whether honorifics not critical to the content of the letter may be included, whether the date may be written, whether it should be mentioned that the letter is being written on chol hamoed, etc.

The answer to all these questions can be found by close examination and study of this letter, but what stands out is that at the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Nachum mentions chol hamoed: "Although I do not write on chol hamoed, this may be considered prevention of a loss." At the end of the letter, he states: "So out of respect for the festival, I will conclude here."

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the great gaon Rabbi Nachum Partzovitz.

[1] leaf, approximately 16x12 cm.

Fine-very fine condition. Filing perforations.