Printed Heter Meah Rabbanim Signed by the Minchat Elazar of Munkacs, with a Lengthy Handwritten Addition to Rabbi ...

Printed Heter Meah Rabbanim Signed by the Minchat Elazar of Munkacs, with a Lengthy Handwritten Addition to Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld

Extraordinarily rare! Heter meah rabbanim spread across four large pages. Signed in print by five rabbinic leaders of Hungary - dayanim of Munkacs, led by "The Admo"r the sacred gaon ... shlit"a [ztz"l] ... Chaim Elazar Shapira." Aharon Dov Meisels Press. Munkacs, 1925. Not listed in Mif'al HaBibliographiah and not found in the National Library.

Aside from the sacred gaon, the author of Minchat Elazar of Munkacs, these other renowned rabbis have also signed on the heter: The gaon Rabbi Aharon Weiss, ra'ava"d of Munkacs; the gaon Rabbi Moshe Shpitzer, a disciple of the 'Kol Aryeh' and author of Kuntress Imrei Moshe - dayan and moreh tzeddek of Munkacs; the gaon Rabbi David Shlisel, author of Beit David V'Sha"s - ra'ava"d of Munkacs (despite his signature here on the heter as a dayan); the gaon Rabbi Meir Ze'ev Seltzer HaKohen, author of Divrei Meir -  dayan and moreh tzeddek of Munkacs; and Rabbi Menachem Weiss, author of Tzemach Esh - dayan and moreh tzeddek of Munkacs. These last four signed again in their own hands on the lengthy handwritten addendum.

Exceptionally lengthy heter meah rabbanim [4 pp], with a detailed list of the reasons the rabbis took this unusual step of granting the heter meah rabbanim, which is only granted when all other avenues have been exhausted. Despite the refined language the dayanim attempted to use, their words are simply hair-raising. How is it possible for a married woman to be engaged in such deviant conduct, and in the zealous city of Munkacs, of all places?! (Until one recalls that at that time, not only were rabbis and Admo"rim active in Hungary, but also the likes of Yisrael Kastner.)

The reason for the extreme length of this letter of heter is because the Minchat Elazar was concerned for the opinions of the poskim who demand signatures from rabbis from three different countries for a heter meah rabbanim (such as those that appear in this one here, ) and as such, due to their substantial geographical distance, the beit din in Munkacs described the wayward woman's behavior in great detail.

This heter meah rabbanim was sent from Munkacs, Hungary, to the "Lishkat HaGazit" in Jerusalem, the beit din of the rabbi of the Land of Israel, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, so that rabbinic leaders of Jerusalem would also join this heter.

The beit din in Munkacs added a handwritten leaf to the printed text that is signed by the Munkacs dayanim and (twice) stamped by the beit din in Munkacs. In their letter, the dayanim of Munkacs request that the dayanim of Jerusalem "The sacred and glorious honorable Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, nasi of the great beit din, shlit"a, along with his associates, the geonim Rabbi Mordechai Leib Rubin, Rabbi Dov Tzvi Karelenstein, and Rabbi Yitzchak Frankel, " join them in this heter meah rabbanim. The four rabbis signed on the handwritten letter, and they are signed in print on the body of the heter (except for the Minchat Elazar and Rabbi Aharon Weiss).

Historical note - according to the calculation of the years the signatories, the geonim who signed on this letter, served in Munkacs, it was at the height of the Munkacs-Belz dispute. The stance of each of the dayanim on this issue is unknown, but the Minchat Elazar's observation about one of the signatories - the gaon Rabbi Meir Ze'ev Seltzer, who would regularly accompany Rebbe Yissachar Dov of Belz, is well-known - that "his intent is for the sake of Heaven, for the honor of the Torah!"

[1] double leaf with [4] printed pages + [1] handwritten letter. 34 cm.

Moderate-fine condition. Fold mark, light tears and filing perforations.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for brief biographies of the letter's signatories: Signature in print: The Admo"r Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapira. Handwritten signatures: the gaon Rabbi Moshe Shpitzer, the gaon Rabbi David Shlissel, the sacred gaon Rabbi Menachem Weiss, and the gaon Rabbi Meir Ze'ev Seltzer, author of Divrei Meir.