Letter on official letterhead, a recommendation for Rabbi Meir Lipman ben Rabbi Yitzhak Eliyahu, the rabbi of Grozny, handwritten and signed by Rabbi Refael Shapira, the head of the Volozhin yeshiva.
From 15th of Sivan 1915, in which he compliments the person profusely: “I know him as a gadol in torah, in harifut and bekiyut in gemara and the poskim…the depth of iyun with clear wisdom…he merits serving in the rabbinate of a great city…and to rise for the Torah’s honor. Refael Shapira Volozhin.”
Size: 27.5×21.5cm. Stains in the folds as a result of tape, then underwent professional restoration and the tape was removed.
Rabbi Refael Shapira (1837-1921) was the son of Rabbi Aryeh Leib the Av Beit Din of Kovna (Rabbi Leibele Kovner). He was a rabbi in the town and then the head of the yeshiva in Volozhin. When he was 15 he was taken by the Natziv to wed his daughter and he even helped him with his work Emek She’ela. In 1881 he gave up the job as rabbi for his son-in-law Rabbi Haim Soloveitchik of Brisk and he went out to serve as rabbi in the community of Novo-Alexandrovsk, Lithuania. He had a unique method of study known by the name “LeShitateha”, mixing harifus with bekiyus and amekus. His torah is reproduced somewhat in Torat Refael. Among his students: Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis, Rabbi of Kloriya and the Eida Charedit in Jerusalem; Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, Chief Rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Edelstein, Chief Rabbi of Shomiatz and Ramat HaSharon.
