Unique Letter to a Jewish Legislator and Judge about the Marriage of a Kohen to a Chalutzah, from Rabbi Binyamin ...

Unique Letter to a Jewish Legislator and Judge about the Marriage of a Kohen to a Chalutzah, from Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf Zussman-Sofer, Rabbi of Budapest. Szentgróth, 1863

Letter with a unique request written by the gaon Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf Zussman-Sofer, a disciple of the Chatam Sofer, and one of the most prominent rabbis of Hungary, to a leading Jewish legislator who sat on the bench in the capital city of Budapest.

The event was as follows: The content of the request is regarding a Jewish widower in his community from a family of kohanim who remarried. He just found out that his new wife had been married to another man who passed away without children. She received chalitzah from her husband's brother, and she is now forbidden to her husband due to her status as a chalutzah! The rabbi and av beit din Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf Zussman-Sofer told this man that he is halachically required to divorce her, "but he is an ignoramus and does not wish to listen."

Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf Zussman-Sofer therefore appeals to the honorable legislator who has the power of government behind him "whose name has preceded him among the Jews to bring glory to the exiled people ... to his sacred Torah and to his religion. He is a hero in Hashem's war among his people, and he must arouse his zealousness to shout against those who rise up against us ..." Rabbi Sofer asks him to write a letter from the legal standpoint in the local language and with his signature, and this may help the man to reconsider and give his wife a get.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf Zussman-Sofer.

Specifications: [1] leaf. Thin paper. Size: 22.5x30 cm. 30 lines. Entirely handwritten and signed by him. (Several lines at the end in a foreign language.) Written on both sides. Stains. Fold marks. Moderate-fine condition.