Collection of 41 postcards sent to R. Dr. Chaim Brody, Rabbi of Prague – with 54 signatures of rabbis who joined the Heter Meah Rabbanim – rabbis and Beit Dins from various countries across Europe. Nisan-Elul 1922.
Reply cards in lithographic print, assenting to permit Shmuel Tzvi son of David to remarry. On the outer side of the postcard is printed the name and address of the recipient, R. Chaim Brody.

The signatories on the postcards include R. Isser Zalman Meltzer and his court, Slutsk; R. Shlomo Grünfeld and his court, Munkacs; the Beit Din of London, with six signatories, including R. Joseph Hertz, R. Moshe Avigdor Chaikin, R. Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman, and more; R. Yosef Tzvi Carlebach, Hamburg; R. Aharon Neuwirth, Halberstadt; R. Pinchas Wolf and his court, Cologne; R. Meir Hildesheimer, Berlin; R. Yosef Wohlgemuth, Berlin; R. Yaakov Posen, Frankfurt; R. Binyamin May, Frankfurt; R. Yissachar Behr, Prenzlau; R. Yisrael Broda, Michalovce; R. Avraham Aryeh Kurzweil of Pressburg, Brtnice (Moravia); R. Zalman Jacobowitz, Lackenbach; R. Yosef Rosenfeld, Chernivtsi; R. Aryeh Leibish Lichtig, Hamburg; R. Yitzchak Rosel, Tilsit (Sovetsk); and more.

The Heter Meah Rabbanim (permission of a hundred rabbis) was granted in cases when it was necessary to permit a man to marry a second wife, when his first wife becomes incapacitated or runs off, under certain halachic conditions. One of the conditions is that the permitting rabbis be of different countries.

R. Chaim Brody, chief rabbi of Prague, corresponded with rabbis from all over the world, and for this reason addressed dozens of rabbis from different countries with a detailed responsum to explain the Heter, enclosing a reply card to endorse it.

The recipient of the present postcards, R. Dr. Chaim (Heinrich) Brody (1868-1942), chief rabbi of Prague. Born in Ungvár, where he was taught by his father R. Shlomo Zalman Broda, and his grandfather R. Shlomo Ganzfried, both dayanim in the city. He studied in the Pressburg yeshiva, and later in R. Hildesheimer's Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. Served as Rabbi of Náchod, later succeeding his father-in-law R. Nathan Ehrenfeld as Chief Rabbi of Prague. He specialized in the study of manuscripts from the Rishonim, and was known as one of the most prominent researchers of Spanish Jewry's medieval poetry. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1934, where he directed Salman Schocken's Institute for the Research of Hebrew Poetry.

41 postcards. 14x9 cm. Varying condition. Some contain postage stamps and postmarks. Some postcards contain open tears (due to removal of postage stamps), affecting text.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.