Very important responsum, relatively lengthy [approximately 60 words] and unknown, firmly establishing for generations an important topic regarding shidduchim. Entirely handwritten and signed by the leader of the entire Diaspora, Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, author of Chazon Ish [Bnei Brak, 1940.] It is rare to find this type of responsum – the type that can be catagorized as a constitutive responsum.
Constitutive halachic responsum, in which the gadol haposkim of previous generations establishes in the most decisive and clear way – that shidduchim may not be made between a couple that will not fulfill taharat hamishpachah after they get married, and one cannot even assist this type of shidduch (with information, etc.). The Chazon Ish really makes the effort to emphasize the severity of the prohibition, so that people not say that it is just a chumrah . He calls out a person who even just assists such a shidduch: “One who assists in this is cutting off his brother’s soul”!
The question was sent to the Chazon Ish by the mashgiach of the Ponovezh yeshivah, the tzaddik and gaon Rabbi Ben Tziyon Bamberger, and it was printed, including the Chazon Ish’s responsum, in his sefer , Ginzei Sha’arei Tziyun (Bnei Brak, 2003, p. 35). Later on in the letter, the Chazon Ish answers another interesting question for him, one quite relevant at the beginning of Bnei Brak’s establishment – May one speak divrei kedushah in the street when there may be a donkey’s excrement nearby? The Chazon Ish responds at length that one must only be concerned about this in the mornings. This responsum was also printed in his sefer (ibid, pp. 24).
Apparently this question about the shidduch was a practical one, so the Chazon Ish, with his famous nobility of character, softens the harsh halachic expressions in the letter that he had to write in order to emphasize the severity of the prohibition. Yet for the sender, who later served as mashgiach of Ponovezh, the Chazon Ish expresses himself with much closeness and characteristic compliments, opening his letter with the famous statement “Fortunate are Torah scholars, for whom mitzvahs are most beloved”!
[1] leaf paper, approximately 21×8 cm. Entirely handwritten by the Chazon Ish.
Fine condition. Fold marks. Light aging stains.