Official document handwritten, signed and stamped by the gaon Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Mannheimer, sent to the chief rabbi of Pest. The document is written in a foreign language and dated the 8th of August, 1865. It confirms that a marriage ceremony was performed for a couple in his community. The back of the document bears the recipient’s and sender’s details and an official wax seal in Hebrew confirming the letter.
Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Mannheimer [1814-1886] was the rabbi of Werbau and Ungvar and leader of the Orthodox Jewish community in Hungary. He was an elite disciple of the Chatam Sofer, renowned as a genius from a young age. Before he was even thirteen, he was accepted to the Chatam Sofer’s yeshivah, where extremely proficient older students studied. The Chatam Sofer rebuked them a few times, asking why they’re not embarrassed by this young boy, who wasn’t even bar mitzvah yet, who was engaged in in-depth understanding better than they. Rabbi Landsberger, Av Beit Din of Grosswardein, studied together with him in the yeshivah. He preceded a question to him regarding releasing an agunah with the statement: “I don’t have anyone to ask, then I remembered you, that when you were still young you were a “lime pit that doesn’t lose a drop” and an overflowing wellspring … and a true genius.” He was also well-accepted by the Chassidic leaders, and many of the next generation of Hungarian rabbis studied in his yeshivahs in Werbau and Ungvar. The first responsum in Shu”t Ktav Sofer , Even HaEzer, is addressed to him. He authored the Ein HaBedolach responsa and novellae. His epitaph reads, “Minister and leader in Israel, the leading shepherd, the cedar of Lebanon, world genius and lofty righteous person.” [Encyclopedia, HaChatam Sofer V’Talmidav , 151-156].
[1] sheet of paper, divided into two leaves, each leaf 32×20 cm. German. Fine condition. Aging stains.