Important and lengthy letter [approximately 200 words], entirely handwritten and signed by the gaon Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, Av Beit Din of Galanta, Chust and Jerusalem. The letter was sent to the gaon Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, head of the Etz Chaim institutions, and deals with the prohibition of accepting government funds.
The letter before us outlines the path of Chareidi Jewry and its ideology for the coming generations. In his letter, the Mahari”tz requests and demands that the Etz Chaim institutions – the most veteran institutions in the Land, to not be tempted by the funds offered by the civil government for the first time to the Talmud Torah. There did not initially seem to be a problem with taking the proffered funds, (and many good people did indeed take them with both hands), although the source of these funds was taxes collected from the entire Jewish settlement. Yet, the Mahari”tz Dushinsky, with his crystal eyes, predicted the future (albeit the distant future, decades later!), when cash payback would be demanded for this support, in the form of intervention in the curriculum. To this, he was vehemently opposed.
The Mahari”tz Dushinsky writes in his constitutive letter as follows: “Given that I heard that there were those sent … to receive funds from the education tax, and should this work of the Satan succeed, and the Talmud Torah not withstand this test, it would be, Heaven forbid, the destruction of our holy Torah … do not fall into the net the “free” have set … build a fence and stand at its breach, to remove all stumbling blocks and disgrace … and may [your] praises and virtues increase, and may all who receive (this support) have his misappropriation increased, as he has misappropriated the sanctity of the Torah … that foxes not breach it …”
The Mahari”tz Dushinsky concludes with tremendous blessings: “I bless with abundant blessings and prayers for length of days and years, increased serenity, that [your] eyes and ours see the consolation of Tziyon and Yerushalayim.”
The gaon Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky [1868-1949] was one of the most well-known rabbinic leaders of his time. He served in the rabbinate of Galanta and Chust, where he led the yeshivah – one of the largest and most prominent in the Hungarian lands. In 1933, he ascended to the Land of Israel and was immediately given the position of chief rabbi of the Edah HaChareidit in Jerusalem, and leader of Chareidi Jewry in the Land of Israel.
[1] leaf paper, 24 cm. Official lined stationery, entirely in the hand and with the signature of the Mahari”tz Dushinsky.
Very fine condition. Fold marks.