Bidspirit auction | Letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rayatz: “He has the sensitivity of a Tomim, and I was very pleased.” Tevet 1947. - A powerful letter from the holy Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch (the Rayatz), to Rabbi Alexander Sender Judasin, regarding his son R. Yitzchak: “He has the sensitivity of a Tomim, and I was very pleased. May Hashem grant him success in all that he requires, both materially and spiritually.” Typed on the official letterhead of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rayatz, and signed in his holy hand: “Yosef Yitzchak.” Brooklyn, New York, Rosh Chodesh Tevet 1947. Rabbi Alexander Sander Judasin (1897–1983). One of the leading Chabad rabbis in the Land of Israel. He served as rabbi of the Chassidic community in Jaffa for nearly fifty years, was a member of the rabbinical court, and authored works on the Talmud and on Sefer HaTanya. He was born in 1897 in Rogachov. In his youth he studied in yeshivot near his hometown, in the town of Rechitsa, Belarus. In 1909, he enrolled in the Tomchei Tmimim yeshiva in Lubavitch. In the summer of 1914, he was among the five temimim who spent time with the Rebbe Rashab in the countryside of Zaołsha. During World War I, he first stayed at the home of Rabbi David Tzvi Chen (the Radatz Chen), rabbi of Chernigov, who drew him close and studied Chassidic discourses with him in partnership. Later, at the instruction of the Rebbe Rashab, he moved to Kherson, where together with other temimim he established a branch of the Tomchei Tmimim yeshiva and would review Chassidic discourses every Shabbat. After some time, he returned to Chernigov and received rabbinic ordination in the laws of issur v’heter and in gittin and kiddushin from Rabbi Chen. At his wedding in Adar 1921 to Chaya Basya, daughter of R. David and Esther Leah, the officiating rabbi was the saintly gaon Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe). About two years later, he was appointed rabbi of Krivoy Rog and its environs. Because of his rabbinic position, he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities and arrested several times. In 1930 he was expelled from the city. At first, the authorities sought to exile him to the Solovki Islands, but eventually permitted him to settle in Pervomaisk (Ukraine), on condition he not return to his former rabbinic post. In 1934 he immigrated to the Land of Israel, settling in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv. At that time, Rabbi Shneur Zalman Slonim, rabbi of the Chabad community in Jaffa, was ill and in great pain, and referred halachic questions he received to Rabbi Judasin. At first, Rabbi Judasin declined to answer, not wishing to assume rabbinic authority, but recalling words the Rayatz had spoken to him in yechidus, he realized that this was indeed the Rebbe’s will.