Long letter (3 large pages) - Handwritten, signed halachic responsum by R. Chaim Yitzchak Yerucham, rabbi of Altstadt (Staryi Sambir). Vienna, Jan. 1918.
Halachic responsum regarding the kashrut of vinegar which may have been mixed with other questionable additives. Sent to R. Shmuel Meir Katz, rabbi of Chernowitz (Chernivtsi), "Currently residing with the Jewish exiles in Prague". The letter ends with the signature: "The small Chaim Yitzchak Yerucham, rabbi of Altstadt [Staryi Sambir] and its environs, currently in exile, hoping for G-d's salvation".
R. Chaim Yitzchak Yerucham (1865-1942) was among the greatest Galician rabbis and halachic decisors in his generation. He was born in Mielec, Galica, and at age 18 was appointed to his first rabbinic position in Tymbark. In 1888 he became rabbi in the nearby town of Limanowa, where he served until 1907, when he was appointed rabbi in Staryi-Sambir (Altstadt). There he opened a yeshiva that attracted many students, including R. Shlomo Halberstam, later Rebbe of Bobov, and R. Moshe of Bardejov. He often travelled to the Rebbes of Bobov, Belz, and Shineva (Sieniawa). During WWI he escaped to Vienna, where he remained after the end of the war. At the outbreak of WWII he was trapped in Poland and returned to Staryi-Sambir, where he died in the ghetto on Sukkot, September, 1942. He began printing his Sefer Birchat Yitzchak in Vienna in 1923, but the printing was never completed. After the Holocaust, his son R. Aharon Yerucham printed his Sefer Birchat Chaim (2 volumes, 1957-1966, New York), which contains some of his father's responsa and Torah novellae. This responsum is printed there in section 13.
[3] pages. 28 cm. Fair condition. Dampstains, wear and fold lines. Slight wear to the fold lines.