“May you be saved with the salvation of worlds and blessed from the source of blessings … blessings and salvations that will fulfill all [your] requests for the good” (from the Rebbe’s blessing in this letter)
Letter with a desperate cry for help at the brink of the Holocaust, entirely handwritten and signed by the lofty tzaddik, the Admo”r Rabbi Yechizkiah Fisch of Mátészalka. 1939. Letters from the Admo”r are extraordinarily rare.
In this shocking letter, sent to American Jewry from Mátészalka, Hungary, the Rebbe relates the situation of European Jewry. The Rebbe uses hints due to the censor, who, according to the Rebbe, “lost” his previous letter. This letter demonstrates that he, as it were, forgoes his own life, from the perspective of “better the arrow should enter me.” His primary plea is to work on rescuing his two sons.
So writes the Rebbe in his shocking letter: “Honorable sirs! I have never burdened anyone with anything like this, indeed our position is known, that no one exits or enters due to the pursuer … my dear son Rabbi Eliezer shlit”a … and his younger brother, the lofty and accomplished young man … to fulfil through them the commandment of redeeming captives (emphasis in the original) … anyone who saves the life of one Jew it is as if he sustained an entire world … this platform is too short … to describe the oppression … the two are like many but come as one.” His cry did not go unheeded, and his two sons were saved from the inferno. The Rebbe concludes his letter: “May you be saved with the salvation of worlds and blessed from the source of blessings … blessings and salvations that will fulfill all [your] requests for the good.”
The Admo”r Rabbi Yechizkiah Fisch of Mátészalka [1885-1944] was a son of Rabbi Aharon Yeshayahu Fisch of Hodász, author of Perach Mateh Aharon and Kedushat Aharon , one of the grandsons of Rabbi Ya’akov Fisch of Kalov (confidante of the Maharia”a of Kalov), who was blessed by the Besh”t for long life – and he lived 113 years. The Fisch family was among the patriarchs of Chassidism in Hungary through the generations. Rabbi Yechizkiah Fisch was very great in Torah and its revealed and hidden aspects. After his father’s passing in 1928, many Jews flocked to him for counsel and blessings, and his name became world-renowned. He established an important yeshivah in his city, and taught many disciples. He was oppressed with suffering his entire life. In 1944, he was sent with members of his community to Auschwitz. All along the way, he encouraged them to become martyrs with love, and before entering the gas chambers, he recited the vidui confession enthusiastically, may his blood be avenged. ( Encyclopedia L’Chassidut II , p.189, Otzar HaRabbanim 9117). His son, Rabbi Eliezer Fisch, Av Beit Din of Mátészalka, survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, where he became known as the Admo”r of Hodász, author of Noam Siach .
[1] postcard, written on both sides. Approximately 10×15 cm. The postcard bears the Admo”r’s logo; it is stamped and postmarked, and is entirely in the Rebbe’s hand and with his signature.
Fine condition. Fold marks.
