“The sight of hundreds of bnei Torah living on the floor of one of the study-halls in Shanghai is absolutely hair-raising.”
Important and beautiful historic letter from the rosh yeshivah of Mir, the gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz. The letter was sent during the Holocaust, upon the Mir yeshivah’s arrival in Shanghai. The gaon Rabbi Chaim describes the heart-rending scene to a friend of the yeshivah’s in America, detailing all they were experiencing. Shanghai, 1 Elul 1941.
Much is written in the annals of Jewish history about the exile of the bnei yeshivah in Shanghai during the terrible years of the Holocaust that annihilated European Jewry. It was a modern-day Noah’s ark, a spiritual reserve miraculously extricated from the valley of death – masses of students from the Lithuanian yeshivahs, using Rabbi Chaim’s golden analog, “Yavneh and its sages.” This was in reference to Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai’s request from the evil Vespasian during the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash , when he realized that it was already impossible to save the Beit HaMikdash and the Land of Israel: “Give me Yavneh and its sages.”
This letter is of extraordinarily rare historic value, given that it was sent while the events themselves were taking place, by the person standing at the center of it all – the gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz. He bore the load of all of the yeshivahs in the Shanghai exile due to his position as rosh yeshivah of Mir – the main yeshivah of those exiled there, upon whose name the entire exile is entitled, ” Galut Yeshivat Mir B’Shanghai .”
In this letter sent to Rabbi Yehonatan Abramowitz of Dallas, Texas, one of the major American yeshivah supporters, the gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz depicts with picturesque and shockingly vivid descriptions the events experienced by the yeshivah students as they fled the Nazi jaws. These pearls shine with the classic clarity for which he is famous from his lectures. Step by step, he describes everything the yeshivah went through, from its original location in the village of Mir, Lithuania, through the present stop on the Asian continent, the crime-ridden, lawless, idol-worshipping city of Shanghai.
“These past two years, since the outbreak of war, as we go from one exile to another … We went to Lithuania, where the cup of poison spilled as well. Baruch Hashem , through huge miracles, our yeshivah was rescued from there, yet it is the only one from all of the Torah centers in Europe literally saved in toto . From there we traveled many roads, through the deserts of Siberia, through which we wandered until our arrival in Japan. We stayed in Japan for over half a year, and baruch Hashem the yeshivah was conducted there in all its sacred glory and splendor. The diligence and sacred ascent were beyond compare, but then … the decree came for us to leave … and wander on to Shanghai”
A special chapter in the letter is dedicated to the Shanghai exile itself. It was to become the residence of bnei yeshivah for the next few years (the gaon Rabbi Chaim obviously did not yet know this): “… This chapter of the yeshivah’s current exile is the most terrible so far in its history. It is beyond human capacity to relate the hardship here. The sight of hundreds of bnei Torah living on the floor of one of the study-halls in Shanghai is absolutely hair-raising. The conditions are so horrible that several dozen students have become ill, and even the healthy are at risk of catching dangerous diseases, may Hashem have mercy … we are like lonely abandoned orphans among the malicious waves …”
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the great gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz .
This important and historic letter was printed in Yeshivat Mir – HaZerichah B’Pa’atei Kedem, Part II, p. 595-596.
[1] leaf paper. 21.5×28 cm. Official stationery, high-quality with water marks. Signed at the end by Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz, and with his stamp. (The body of the letter may have been handwritten by Rabbi Chaim.)
Very fine condition. Fold marks. Aging stains in the margins. Tiny tear in the upper corner, with neither damage nor lack.