“Sages of the generation sought Torah, advice and wisdom from him to receive his straightforward guidance – just like they would have made an inquiry directly from G-d.” ( Gedolei HaDorot II)
Important and lengthy historic (polemic) letter from the Nasi Eretz HaKedoshah , the gaon Rabbi Eliezer Landau. Rabbi Eliezer was one of the gedolei hador of Lithuania, author of Damesek Eliezer on the Gr”a’s elucidation of the Shulchan Aruch, which is extensively cited in halachic literature (signed twice). The letter was sent to gedolei Yerushalayim and it discusses the distribution funds, those who object to the method of distribution, and a list of donors and recipients, including Rabbi Shmuel Salant and the gaon of Kutna. Lithuania, 1860.
The addressees are: “My beloved friends, the rabbis and geonim , righteous and pure, the most noteworthy Rabbi Naftali Hertz Mintzberg and Rabbi Ya’akov Lutziner and the great gaon, the famous Chassid, the av beit din of Kutna (author of Zayit Ra’anan ; in the margins of the letter). The letter deals with distribution funds sent from the Lithuanian cities: Vilna, Horodna, Brisk, Minsk, Amdor and others, the details of the distribution and even the kollel emissaries.
There is also mention of those who object to the way the Kollel (Vilna) charity funds are distributed to the Perushim in Jerusalem: “What can I do? We have suffered greatly for more than three years. We have found no peace from the locals who want to get involved in our work, nor from … people in our kollel who write lampoons and try with all their might to destroy … they should get what is coming to them, and we will be clean …”
The second leaf bears a long list of donors and recipients of the distribution funds and the status of Jerusalem residents, with details of the names of the donors and the recipients, including names of the rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shmuel Salant and his wife, the Rebbetzin, and of the gaon of Kutna, ztz”l. “A sum of 75 meluna from R’ Dov for R’ Shmuel Salant”;”To give the wife of the Rav R’ Shmuel Salanter – two rubles …”
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for brief biographies of the gaon Rabbi Eliezer Landau of Vilna and Horodno , the addressee, the gaon Rabbi Moshe Leib Silverberg of Kutna, author of Zayit Ra’anan , and the other addressee, Rabbi Ya’akov Lutziner .
[2] leaf, 26×21 cm. Signed addition from another writer in the middle of the letter.
Moderate-fine condition. Aging stains. Black stain in the middle of the leaf. Artistic restoration with paper completion. Restored tear with lack (a quarter of the page), in the leaf added to the letter.