Auction 38
Lot 265:
Official letterhead of the ‘Eida Charedit Prushim and Chassidim of the Ashkenazim of the city of Jerusalem’, with a certificate of marriage from 1965, signed by the mesader kiddushin ‘David Moshe Rosenbaum’, the Admor of Krestchnif Rehovot (see below). Witnesses signed: “Haim Friedlander” (the mashgiach, gaon, and kabbalist the Ba’al HaMachshava of Ponevezh, see below) and “Dov Zeev Steinhaus”. Size: 26.5×21.5cm. Tear at the top of the page, folding creases, overall good condition.
The Admor Rabbi David Moshe Rosenbaum of Kretshnif (1925-1969) was the son and successor of the Admor Rabbi Eliezer Zeev Rosenbaum of Kretshnif and the son-in-law of the Admor Rabbi Haim Mordechai Rosenbaum of Nadvorna. In 1944, when he was sent with his father to Auschwitz, his father appointed him his successor, promised him that he would survive since “the people of Israel need him.” After the war a small number of chassidim gathered around him in Sighet and appointed him their Admor. He moved to Israel in 1947 and settled in Jerusalem. Upon the advice of the Chazon Ish and the Admor Rabbi Aharon of Belz, he moved to Rehovot to set up a charedi community. In 1969 he travelled to visit his ancestors’ graves in Romania, collapsed and died. His body was brought back to Israel, and he is buried in the Rehovot cemetery. His sons include: Admor of Kretshnif-Rehovot, the Admor of Kretshnif-Kiryat Gat (who died a month ago), and the Admor of Premyslan, the Admor of Bitchkov zt”l, and more. Among his sons-in-law are the Admor of Sasov, the Admor of Poltishan, and more.
He was known as a miracle worker, especially in medical matters, which he would ‘clothe’ in natural methods, with prescriptions that would be honored in pharmacies in Rehovot, eating certain foods, and some that would seem to oppose nature. Rabbi Gershon Eidelstein of Lithuania told the head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva that once when one of his family members consumed medicine, the Rebbe from Kretshnif ordered him to give a specific medicine and the patient was cured, which the doctors did not succeed in their various medicines. The Rav was shocked, and asked the Steipler how a young rabbi succeeded, never having studied medicine, instead of the doctors? The late Steipler replied: "Zayn Zagan is more than enough medicine – what he says-blesses, helps more than the medicine he gives.”
The kabbalist Rabbi Haim Friedlander, the Sfatei Chaim (1923-1986) was among the first seven bachurim of the Ponevezh yeshiva in 1954 and was close to the mashgiach Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, whom he later served alongside and succeeded. He was also mashgiach in the Yeshivat HaNegev. Because he was proficient in kabbalah he dealt greatly with the writings of the Ramchal and published a number of editions of his books. He was a member of the mussar movement and became famous for his Sfatei Chaim series of books.
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