Shomer Yisrael against Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger (HaIvri) and against his book Beit Yosef Hadash, which received approbations of rabbis but after it was sent to the printer it became known that he permitted things prohibited by the kadmonim, see below. Only edition, 24 leaves. Shoshana HaLevi 234. Missing the title page. Leaf 9 has the names of 52 Jerusalem rabbis who signed against him, including members of the Prushim Kollel and Chabad chassidim. No binding or title page, tears in the margins, stains, a historic item. Good condition.
Background: In the book “Beit Yosef Hadash” he wrote that in the event that a man from Israel immigrates to Eretz Israel and his wife does not agree to accompany him – he is allowed to marry a second woman in Eretz Israel, despite the boycott of Rabbeinu Gershom. Jerusalem readers revolted against him and declared a boycott. All members of the Hungarian kollel had to sign their consent to the boycott either on a letter sent abroad or when they came to receive the "distribution" allowance. A record was on the table and everyone was "asked" to sign before receiving the money. Only a few withstood this pressure. Among them were Joshua Stampfer and Rabbi Menachem Manish Scheinberger, Rabbi Schlesinger’s colleagues. Rabbi Menachem Manish even beat the table with his fist until the “letter” flew from the table and he shouted “Tzelem He’emido Al HaShulchan HaZeh, Vayishtachavu Lo Kulam Avur Kesef Nim’as!”. Of course he was prevented from receiving money from the distribution and his relatives had to send money for his family’s livelihood. As a result of this conflict, the book was published with a booklet Shimru Mishpat warning against the claims of the Hungarian Kollel. In response the booklets Nitotz HaBayit and Shomer Yisrael were published. Rabbis even ruled that Rabbi Schlesinger’s books were not to be genizahed but burned according to the law of minim and heretics, but despite that, upon his death Rabbi Yosef Haim Zonenfeld accorded him respect, and eulogized him.
Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger (1838-1922) was a noted Orthodox Jewish rabbi who served as the rabbinical leader of what was then Pressburg, Hungary but what is now Bratislava, Slovakia. He was the son of Rabbi Yehiel, a student of the Chatam Sofer. He was active in encouraging the building of the Land of Israel and he encouraged the purchase of land for building and agriculture. He was a student of the Katav Sofer, the Maharam Shik, and the Machaneh Chayim. He was son-in-law of Rabbi Hillel Liechtenstein of Kolomiya, the Maskil El Dal. Like his father-in-law, he attacked the modernization movement among Orthodoxy in Hungary, and his well-known work “Lev HaIvri” (abbreviating his name) is on this subject.
