Auction 68
Lot 252:
Leaf with references, handwritten entirely by the Admor the Gaon Rabbi E;iezer Hager of Vizhnitz, author of Damesek Eliezer. With his Hebrew and foreign signature.
The manuscript includes 11 lines handwritten by him, references he wrote down for himself for a lesson he delivered in his famed Vizhnitz Yshiva or for a halachic responsa. According to the written testimony of the famed Chassid Rabbi Eliezer Friedman, who owned the leaf: "כתי"ק מרבינו הגה"ק ר’ אליעזר מוויז’ניצא זצוק"ל שהי’ בדף הראשון של מסכת בבא קמא וכן קצת מראה מקומות מכתי"ק".
Appearing on the leaf is Rabbeinu’s foreign signature. On verso of the leaf, an additional Hebrew signature, in the lifetime of his father, the Ahavas Yisrael: "אליעזר בהה"צ שליט"א אבדק"ק ווישניצא והגליל".
"אם יתן איש את כל הון ביתו באהבה שאהבו תלמידי הדמשק את רבם הק’, בוז יבוזו לו".
23.5X26 cm.
Fold lines. Good condition.
…
The Admor Rabbi Eliezer Hager, author of he Damesek Eliezer of Vizhnitz (1891-1946) was the son of the Ahavat Yisrael of Vizhnitz. On his mother’s side he was grandson of the Imrei Noam of Djikov. He was an amazing Talmid Chacham, Admor and Rosh Yeshiva of Vizhnitz. He received his Semicha from the Maharsham of Berzhan and Rabbi Shmuel Engel of Radomishla. During World War I, he lived in Vienna and was in contact with many Jewish sages who resided there because of the war, such as Rabbi Avraham Menachem Steinberg (the Machazeh Avraham). In 1922 he was crowned Rav of Vizhnitz during his father’s lifetime, and a year later he established the Vizhnitz yeshiva in the town. After his father’s passing in 1936 he began to serve as Admor.
In 1940 he escaped Vizhnitz, which had been captured by the Russians, and settled in Timisoara. He loved the Jewish people so much that he sacrificed greatly to save Jews with food packages and rescue operations for Jews exiled to the Transnistria swamps, operations led by his brother the Mekor Baruch of Seret-Vizhnitz. He sold all of his possessions with this idea in mind, and luckily also managed to escape himself and move to Israel on the 26th of Nissan, 1944, where he established the Vizhnitz yeshiva in Tel Aviv. A few months later he appointed his nephew to run it (Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, later the Admor Yeshuot Moshe of Vizhnitz). A short time after his Aliyah he became sick and passed away in Elul 1946. He is buried on the Mt. of Olives beside the graves of Admorei Rachmastrivka. He did not leave any descendants to continue his legacy. Although he made efforts to print all of his Chiddushim, many of them were forever lost during the war. After his passing, some of his Divrei Torah were published in the book Damesek Eliezer on the Torah (1949), and on Tehillim (1958).
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