Bidspirit auction | Scholarly Letter on the Issue

Scholarly Letter on the Issue of Korbanot Handwritten and Signed by Rabbi Yosef Rosen, the ”Rogatchover” - Dvinsk, 1928 - Postcard from Thursday, the 21st of Kislev 5688 (1928). The beginning of the letter is closely written on one side and continues on the margins of the reverse side with a signature. Rabbi Yosef Rosen (1858-1936), known as the Rogatchover Gaon (named after his hometown - Rogatcher in Belarus), was one of the most prominent Talmudic scholars of the early 20th-century, known as a genius (gaon) because of his photographic memory and ability to connect sources from the Talmud to seemingly unrelated situations. He has been described as the foremost Talmudic genius of his time. He was born in Rogachev into a Hassidic family of Lubavitcher Hassidim. His unusual capabilities were noticed at the age of thirteen, when he was sent to study in Slutzk along with Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, five years his senior, under the Beit Ha'Levi, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. He subsequently studied under Rabbi Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin (Maharil Diskin) in Shklov. He then assumed (in 1889) the rabbinate of the Hassidic community in Dvinsk for almost 50 years. Among those who received semicha (Rabbinic ordination) from him were the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; Rabbi Mordecai Savitsky (1911-1991) of Boston; Rabbi Zvi Olshwang (1873–1959?) of Chicago, who was a brother-in-law of Rabbi Shimon Shkop; and Rabbi Avraham Eliyahu Plotkin (1888-1948), the author of Birurei Halachot (a copy of the actual semicha is included in that work). The Rogachover is remembered for his breadth of Torah knowledge and caustic wit. His responses to queries of Jewish law are generally enigmatic and cryptic. Throughout his life, despite not being an official Lubavitcher Chassid, he maintained very close connections to Lubavitcher Chabad Chassidim and their Rebbeim, Rashab and Rayatz. The Rogatchover is a famous figure in Chabad Lubavitch folklore; his name often comes up in stories told in yeshivas and during farbrengens—content ranging from self-sacrifice and dedication to Torah values despite the pressures of Russian government, to special sensitivity of spiritual dimension of the Torah (in Chassidus and Kabbalah), to his genius in the revealed Torah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson once quoted the Rogachover, who said that the whole Judaism to him could be condensed into ten basic ideas, and were he to be smarter, it would be only one idea. Postcard 9x14 cm. Condition: Excellent.