Historic Document: Decision by Gedolei Yerushalayim Ending the Dispute Between the Kollelim

Historic Document: Decision by Gedolei Yerushalayim Ending the Dispute Between the Kollelim

Historic psak din, especially lengthy and well-reasoned, covering three large leaves. Signed by leading dayanim of Jerusalem, the geonim Rabbi Binyamin b"r Shmuel of Stoypts, Rabbi David Wilner and Rabbi Avraham Abba Ya'akov av beit din of Psherosla, dayanim of the Bada"tz D' Kahal Ashkenazim Tochechei Irh"k Yerushalayim." It deals with the multi-year dispute between Kollel Ungarin and Kollel Österreich. Jerusalem, 1886.

The dispute between the Kollel represented at the din Torah by representative R' Eliezer Shapira, and the emissary of the Kollel R' Binyamin of Slotvina, faithful attendant of the Tzemach Tzeddek of Vizhnitz, stretched over many, many years, and was deliberated in various courts. There were occasionally new claims and the earlier agreements were breached. In this psak din, the dayanim attempt to once and for all put an end to the dispute, and in their psak din, which is rare in its length, they relate the entire history of the dispute, and decide conclusively, once and for always, leaving no option for further claims or responses.

This huge dispute was accompanied over the years by printed denouncements from both sides that were also sent abroad, in which they threatened to damage the Kollel's continuous income - the primary income of the residents of the Holy Land, the people of the Yishuv HaYashan. Reverberations of this dispute can be found in period literature and history, for example: "The was a person named Eliezer Shapira [the aforementioned claimant] who desired the honor of the appointed" (Prakim B'Toldot HaYishuv HaYashan Tel Aviv, 1971, pp. 306).

Kovetz Nachalat Tzvi (Bnei Brak 2011, Issue 20 pp. 129), prints a letter of censure that sheds light on the dispute and what transpired. The letter was written by the side that lost this psak din. In their decision, the dayanim refer to the claim that appears in this reproachful letter, that the Kollel's representative refuses to appear at the din Torah, and completely rejects it. Following are excerpts from the letter: 

"To our brethren, the Jewish people ... in all the states of Österreich (Austria), under the reign of his highness, the Kaiser ... The blood of your brothers is crying out ... the voice of robbery and violence in the streets and the marketplaces, shouting violence towards our brothers. The people who came from Hungary to the Holy Land have robbed and oppressed us. They deprive the people from our country. They take our funds like carpenter's water, squeeze our blood from all around, surrounding us to besiege our peace of mind. They persecute us, everyone who comes through our gates ... Österreich has always been compromised through various tricks, and in this they have also retreated. They have broken the law, they have breached the covenant, they have changed terms ten times. We just recently sent the emissary, the sharp and expert Rabbi Binyamin of Slotvina, a resident of Tiberias, to the great city, the capital, Vienna, with the approval of the sacred Admo"r, the true gaon, the righteous and sacred rabbi of the entire Diaspora ... Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, shlit"a, av beit din of Sanz and environs, along with other gedolim ... We have worked to establish regular funds to assist the poor of Kollel Galicia and Ungarin ... and there to the silence of the seas it is banished, the people of Kollel Ungarin were unable ... Sorrow was added to the emissary's distress in accusatory letters ... When we saw there was no restraint on their part, we called their Kollel representatives to din in Jerusalem, to engage in a din Torah before the superior Ashkenazic beit din in Jerusalem. They turned a stubborn shoulder ... and truth was absent.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for brief biographies of Rabbi Binyamin b"r Shmuel of Stoypts, Rabbi Avraham Abba Ya'akov, and Rabbi David Wilner.

[3] large pages. 29 cm.

Moderate condition. Restored tears in the folds, with damage to the text.