Bidspirit auction | A Letter from the Gaon

A Letter from the Gaon R’ Eliyahu Chaim Meisel, Av Beis Din of Lodz — 1894 A warm letter from the ksav yad of the renowned gaon R’ Eliyahu Chaim Meisel, Av Beis Din of Lodz, addressed to the gaon R’ Yisroel Yehonason Yerushalimski, Av Beis Din of Orla — a nephew of the writer. Dated 2 Sivan 1894. The letter contains words of shalom and apology, as R’ Meisel writes about the difficulty of writing in his later years, along with a brief halachic note regarding Sefiras HaOmer. The letter is cited in the sefer Melech B’Yofyo (p. 46). R’ Eliyahu Chaim Meisel (1821–1912) was among the leading rabbanim and manhigim of Poland. Known for his gaonus, pikechus, and extraordinary tzedakah, he served as Av Beis Din in several cities, and from 1874 as Av Beis Din of the great city of Lodz. It was said that any money that came into his hands went immediately to tzedakah. He gave numerous haskamos in his time, and some of his marginal notes on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim were later printed in Piskei Tshuva (siman 2). The recipient, R’ Yisroel Yehonason Yerushalimski (niftar 1917), was the son of R’ Yaakov Moshe, known as the “Tzaddik of Mush.” As a young man he visited Yerushalayim and became deeply attached to the city, even changing his family name to Yerushalimski. Due to his father’s illness he returned to Europe and learned in Volozhin, where he became a close talmid of R’ Chaim Brisker, who would prepare his shiurim together with him. In 1892 he was appointed Av Beis Din of Orla in the Grodno region, and in 1902 became Av Beis Din of the district city of Ihumen (איהומען-(today: Chervyen, Belarus)) near Minsk. Upon his petirah, R’ Chaim Brisker said: “I do not know in this generation two rabbanim of his stature in all of Russia and Poland.” His son-in-law was the famed gaon R’ Yechezkel Abramsky, Baal Chazon Yechezkel.