Auction 61 - Rare and Important Items
Letter from Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman to Rabbi Leib Chasman - Baranavichy, 1925
Opening: $3,000
Sold for: $4,000
Including buyer's premium
Letter (11 lines) handwritten and signed by R. "Elchanan Bunim Wasserman", head of the Baranovichy Yeshiva. Baranavichy, Tevet [1925].
The letter was sent to R Leib Chasman, rabbi of Stuchin (Szczuczyn), who at the time was an active leader of "Vaad Hayeshivot". R. Elchanan opens the letter by asking R. Leib to arrange a meeting in Vilna on behalf of Vaad Hayeshivot. The letter continues with a request that R. Leib send a telegram to "R. S." (R. Shimon Shkop, Rosh Yehsivat Grodno) requesting that he also attend the above mentioned meeting in Vilna.
R. Elchanan Wasserman (1875-1941) was a disciple of R. Shimon Shkop in the Telshe Yeshiva and a leading disciple of the Chafetz Chaim. He served as lecturer and head of the Brisk Yeshiva as well as other positions. After WWI, he established the Ohel Torah Yeshiva in the city of Baranovichy, and was one of the foremost Torah leaders in Lithuania. He served as emissary of the Chafetz Chaim and R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudat Yisrael. R. Elchanan wrote many articles espousing Torah hashkafah, which later formed his book Ikveta D'Meshicha. This volume expressed the Torah stance of his teacher, the Chafetz Chaim, on Zionist nationalism and on the spiritual state of the Jewish people. During the Holocaust, he was deported to the Kovno Ghetto and later killed in the Ninth Fort while studying the laws of Kiddush Hashem. His Torah teachings and discourses were published in the books: Kovetz Shi'urim, Kovetz He'arot, Kovetz Inyanim, Kovetz Igrot HaGaon Rav Elchanan, and others. His methodology and books are still used today as the basis of intensive yeshiva study throughout the Torah world.
R. Yehuda Leib Chasman (1869-1935) was a leading Torah scholar in interwar Europe. He was a native of Iwye where he was a study partner and childhood companion of R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. He was a disciple of the Beit HaTalmud in Kelm, and served as mashgiach of the Telshe Yeshivah while R. Shimon Shkop served as rosh yeshiva. From 1909, he served as rabbi of Szczuczyn, where he established a Yeshiva Gedola which closed at the outbreak of WWI. After the war, with the ensuing destruction of Torah institutes and communities, he dedicated himself to the activities of the Vaad HaYeshivot in Vilna. He was a confidant of the heads of the Vaad: R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, the Chafetz Chaim and R. Shimon Shkop. In 1927, he was invited by the Alter of Slabodka (who referred to him as "a genius of ethics") to serve as mashgiach and spiritual guide of his yeshiva in Hebron, a position he held until his death in 1935.
Postcard, 14X9 cm. Good condition. Postal stamp from Szczuczyn, January 1925.
The letter was sent to R Leib Chasman, rabbi of Stuchin (Szczuczyn), who at the time was an active leader of "Vaad Hayeshivot". R. Elchanan opens the letter by asking R. Leib to arrange a meeting in Vilna on behalf of Vaad Hayeshivot. The letter continues with a request that R. Leib send a telegram to "R. S." (R. Shimon Shkop, Rosh Yehsivat Grodno) requesting that he also attend the above mentioned meeting in Vilna.
R. Elchanan Wasserman (1875-1941) was a disciple of R. Shimon Shkop in the Telshe Yeshiva and a leading disciple of the Chafetz Chaim. He served as lecturer and head of the Brisk Yeshiva as well as other positions. After WWI, he established the Ohel Torah Yeshiva in the city of Baranovichy, and was one of the foremost Torah leaders in Lithuania. He served as emissary of the Chafetz Chaim and R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudat Yisrael. R. Elchanan wrote many articles espousing Torah hashkafah, which later formed his book Ikveta D'Meshicha. This volume expressed the Torah stance of his teacher, the Chafetz Chaim, on Zionist nationalism and on the spiritual state of the Jewish people. During the Holocaust, he was deported to the Kovno Ghetto and later killed in the Ninth Fort while studying the laws of Kiddush Hashem. His Torah teachings and discourses were published in the books: Kovetz Shi'urim, Kovetz He'arot, Kovetz Inyanim, Kovetz Igrot HaGaon Rav Elchanan, and others. His methodology and books are still used today as the basis of intensive yeshiva study throughout the Torah world.
R. Yehuda Leib Chasman (1869-1935) was a leading Torah scholar in interwar Europe. He was a native of Iwye where he was a study partner and childhood companion of R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. He was a disciple of the Beit HaTalmud in Kelm, and served as mashgiach of the Telshe Yeshivah while R. Shimon Shkop served as rosh yeshiva. From 1909, he served as rabbi of Szczuczyn, where he established a Yeshiva Gedola which closed at the outbreak of WWI. After the war, with the ensuing destruction of Torah institutes and communities, he dedicated himself to the activities of the Vaad HaYeshivot in Vilna. He was a confidant of the heads of the Vaad: R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, the Chafetz Chaim and R. Shimon Shkop. In 1927, he was invited by the Alter of Slabodka (who referred to him as "a genius of ethics") to serve as mashgiach and spiritual guide of his yeshiva in Hebron, a position he held until his death in 1935.
Postcard, 14X9 cm. Good condition. Postal stamp from Szczuczyn, January 1925.