Auction 50
Lot 110:
Typewritten letter on official letterhead of the Admor Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam, Kiryat Sanz (Netanya). From 17th of Kislev 1963, addressed to the then Deputy Minister of Education Rabbi Kalman Kahane. The content of the letter is especially heated and testifies to the turmoil of our pure soul of our Rabbi regarding the honor of the Torah and Judaism, and to the devotion of his soul known to all that is sacred. “I was happy to hear on the great awakening taking place for the saving of the honor of the Torah, and the rise in the honor of believing Judaism. I pray regularly to the Creator that he take pity on his sheep dedicating their lives to stand guard over the holiness, and to anoint them with strength to uphold their part, to bring about our Redemption which is close…”. He added a number of handwritten words and signs by hand. 16.5×24.5cm. Filing holes, creases, overall very good condition. Recipient: Rabbi Dr. Kalman Kahane (1910-1991), rabbi of the kibbutz Chafetz Chaim, founder and leader of the Beit Midrash Gavo’ah for Halacha in the Agricultural Hityashvut, and author of many works of Torah. He was a leader of the Agudas Yisrael, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of Knesset and Deputy Minister of Education and Culture.
Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam (1904-1994) was the son of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch of Rodnik. He was the grandson of Admor Rabbi Baruch of Gorlitz and great-grandson of the Divrei Haim of Zans. He was a student of Rabbi David Zvi Zehman of Dukla. His father died when he was 14 and he gave a long eulogy for him. He was son-in-law to Rabbi Haim Teitelbaum of Sighet, the Atzei Haim, and he studied under him. He served as Rabbi of Klausenberg in 1926, in a community which split because of the Zionist tendencies of the local rabbi Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glazner. He was accepted as Rabbi of Rodnik as successor to his father but he didn’t move there. He was saved from the Shoah but his wife and 11 children were murdered, and then he worked to strengthen religious life in the Displaced Persons camps. He immigrated to New York in 1947 and to Union City where he set up his yeshiva.
His second marriage was to the daughter of Rabbi Shmuel David Unger of Nietra. He moved to Israel and established Kriyat Sanz in Netanya in 1960. Most of his works were lost in the Shoah. He wrote Shefa Haim, Yehi Or, and Shut Divrei Yatziv. He established the Mifal HaShas to encourage repetitive learning of the Shas. He established the title of Morenu, which every avrech receives who knows around 1000 pages of Shas. He worked to institute the shita of Rabbeinu Tam with shkiya and bein hashmashot, and established Laniado Hospital in Netanya.
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