Auction 44
Lot 223:
2 letters on official letterhead of Rabbi “David Schneebalg, previously dayan and Ram in Venice and now Ra’avad of the Manchester Orthodox Jewish community.”
1. Addressed to “the beloved students of the Beit Yisrael and Damesek Eliezer yeshiva (Byude-Vizhnitz)”, in which he writes with longing on the coming yahrzeit of the person after whom the yeshiva was named—the Admor Damesek Eliezer of Vizhnitz. “…may it be that his spirit will fly and dwell among you, may you merit celebrating this day…and may it be in your heart to follow the path set for us by our teacher and may the few of us who have strayed return to the fold with a strong connection and may we return to Hashem…and then we’ll merit that the Admor will carry our tefilla before the holy throne so that he will give us chesed shel chinam and write us and stamp us with a ketiva and chatima tova, with a good and blessed year…”. He signed by hand.
2. Addressed to the businessman Rabbi Zalman Shapira, with many blessings for his coming marriage, “mazal tov and blessings for success…may Hashem add to your blessings and may you have a kesher shel kayma and may the Creator make a kinyan to complete the banyan…”. He also guides and requests from him that the bride be dressed as his mother was, “and see to it that you wear Shabbos clothes as done in the chassidut and then you will taste some of the aura of Shabbos…when one respects Shabbos one feels the essence of it, and the perush is that our world and your life should have an essence of Shabbos, which is from Olam HaBa…much success…”. Signed by hand.
Size: 20.5x26cm, stains, folding creases, staple holes, overall good condition.
Rabbi David Zvi Schneebalg (1893-1968) was the son of Rabbi Haim. He was a head of the Vizhnitz yeshiva and a dayan in Vizhnitz between the two world wars. After WWII he served as rabbi of the orthodox community in Manchester. In 1923 the Admor Rabbi Eliezer Hager of Vizhnitz established the Damesek Eliezer yeshiva, which replaced the yeshiva closed because of the war. He appointed Rabbi Schneebalg to lead it. The original was the largest yeshiva in Bukovina, and at its peak around 150 students studied there from various places in Romania. With the outbreak of WWII, it was closed and the residents were moved to ghettos. When he was in the ghetto he established (with Rabbi Baruch Hager, later the Admor Mekor Baruch of Seret-Vizhnitz) a beit din for agunot. Later, together with additional Jews, he was sent to Trans-nistria (next to Moldova). After the war he immigrated to Britain and was appointed rabbi of the “Mehzikei HaDat” community in Manchester. At the end of his life he moved to Israel and lived in Bnei Brak. After his death he was buried in the Zichron Meir cemetery there. His divrei torah were published in the book “Tzemach LeDavid”.
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