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Four Letters of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Opposing the Booklet LeDaat HaKahal Proposing Annulment of Marriages – Tishrei-Tevet 1935-1936 - Four letters of R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Tishrei-Tevet 1935-1936. The letters are addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head of the London Beit Din, an intimate associate of his, and they discuss various public and private affairs. The first letter is handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer, and the other letters are handwritten by his scribe, with several lines and signatures added by R. Chaim Ozer himself. Each of the four letters includes a discussion of a protest against the booklet LeDaat HaKahal by R. Yoel Zusman Hodes of Birmingham, England, an odd work published in 1936 in the wake of the world-ranging controversy in 1935 over whether a conditional stipulation is valid in the consummation stage of marriage. R. Hodes came up with a novel proposal that threatened the very institution of Jewish marriage – that a husband who mistreats his wife could have his marriage retroactively annulled, as the husband betroths his wife ”in accordance with the law of Moses and Israel”, allowing for the dissolution of marriage in the event that he fails to provide his wife with his marital duties. In the letter dated Isru Chag Sukkot 1936, R. Chaim Ozer writes: ”As for the news from England of a booklet soon to be published by R. Hodes of Birmingham, which the community's Reverend Dr. Cohen publicly announces in the official newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, about the wondrous discovery for releasing agunot that their religious rabbi innovated, which is even more outrageous than Shapotshnick's and written boldly and brazenly – he wants to annul every betrothal when the husband does not treat his wife properly, even when the betrothal was unconditional, because saying 'in accordance with the law of Moses and Israel' is just as effective as a condition, and [the husband] does not refer to the betrothal itself but rather that he should behave as the Torah commands and provide her with food, clothing and marital relations, and if he withholds this from her he violated the condition, and other such nonsense. In former times we did not have to pay attention to this, but today in this unfettered generation, efforts should certainly be made to prevent the author from publishing it, and you should use any means to prevent the 'wild Hodes' [a play on Hodes' name, meaning ”myrtle”] from printing his booklet, and the Beit Din can act through important laymen in Birmingham from the Bristol Street Beit Midrash, which is his location, to dissuade him from his mischief, so that he doesn't display his disgrace publicly…”. In the second letter, dated 10th Cheshvan 1936, discussing various matters, he writes among other things: ”I also wrote as you suggested to Chief Rabbi Dr. Hertz regarding the 'wild Hodes', although they had, he writes, of their own initiative called a gathering of the rabbis of England and Ireland to form a plan”. R. Chaim Ozer adds about 12 lines in his own handwriting, including 10 lines of Torah discussion, regarding the reliability of a non-Jew's uncontrived testimony to permit a yevamah to remarry (probably a continuation of a 1923 responsum – printed in Responsa Achiezer III, 8). In the third letter, dated 6th Tevet, after the abovementioned booklet had already been published, he writes: ”I was dismayed to hear that Al Daat HaKahal by the 'wild Hodes' has been published. It is good that they are protesting. I am very willing to join the protest along with the Agudat HaRabbanim and rabbis in Warsaw, but I am in doubt whether in fact it's worthwhile to make the matter known in Poland, which will inform the masses of the booklet and they will think it's just a rabbinical controversy, so perhaps it's better to relate to this with inaction and indifference, and perhaps it's better for us to publish our protest in the London newspapers. Please do me the favor of letting me know your view on this, and perhaps you could also provide me with the miscreant's booklet”. R. Chaim Ozer explains that the letter was written by his scribe R. Aharon Dov Alter due to his health condition: ”I am stuck in the bedroom today and I wrote by Aharon Dov Alter”. He goes on to add a blessing and signature in his own handwriting. After the signature is a lengthy personal letter handwritten and signed (with initials) by R. Aharon Dov Aharon Voronovsky of Vilna, a relative of R. Abramsky, secretary, scribe and confidant of R. Chaim Ozer. In this letter, he blesses R. Abramsky for his first grandson: ”I was overjoyed by the news that you became a grandfather, thank G-d, for your son bore a boy… May you enjoy much satisfaction and pleasure from your grandson, and may he be a blessing among the Jewish people, to Torah, marriage and good deeds…”. In the fourth letter, dated 19th Tevet 1936, R. Chaim Ozer writes: ”The booklet LeDaat HaKahal has reached me,