Bidspirit auction | “...I Await and Yearn for

“...I Await and Yearn for Salvation” — A Letter from Rabbi Yosef Yehuda Leib Bloch of Telz Chol HaMoed Sukkos 1927–5688 A heartfelt rescue letter from Rav Yosef Leib Bloch, Av Beis Din of Telz and Rosh Yeshivah of the famed Telz Yeshivah, addressed to R' Yoseph Carlebach, Av Beis Din of Altona. Written on the first day of Chol HaMoed Sukkos, 1927, the letter is a plea for help on behalf of the yeshivah. In simple, unguarded words, the Rosh Yeshivah writes: “For the material situation of this exalted and holy institution is with great difficulty, and I await and yearn for salvation…” You can feel the weight between the lines. This is not rhetoric. This is the Rosh Yeshivah of Telz, carrying the burden of hundreds of talmidim, writing personally for assistance so the kol Torah should not falter. The Author Rav Yosef Yehuda Leib Bloch (1860–1930) was among the greatest leaders of Lithuanian Torah in his generation. Son-in-law of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, he succeeded him in both the rabbinate of Telz and the leadership of the yeshivah, shaping Telz into one of the foremost Torah citadels in Europe. A central transmitter of the Telz derech in lomdus and mussar (from the derech of R’ Yosef Leib Chasman), his writings were later printed as Shiurei Daas and Shiurei Halachah. He was known as a firm and principled leader, including his well-known opposition to the Mizrachi movement — yet here we see the same gadol writing with humility and raw sincerity for the sake of his talmidim. “I await and yearn for salvation.”