Bidspirit auction | Rare and Important! The Rabbis

Rare and Important! The Rabbis and Shochatim Polemic of Kharkov - Hechsher Letter in Aramaic by Rabbi Avraham Yechezkel Arlosoroff Av Beis Din of Kharkov - The Gaon Rabbi Avraham Yechezkel Arlosoroff (d. 1900, one of the contemporary leading rabbis of Russia and an important Chabad Chassid. Served as Av Beis Din of Kharkov since ca. 1870 and corresponded with leading contemporart rabbis such as Rabbi Yitzchak Alchonon, Rabbi Davif of Karlin and more.  The polemic:  The dispute begand following the decision of the communiuty to build a Jewish hospital. To support it, it was decided that the community will hold the monopoly over the business of Kosher meat and all proceeds shall be donated to its maintenance. The butchers gave thir consent to the move and one of them was appointed to be in charge. Eventually, he began to behave cruelly to the other butchers and they decided to withdraw from the agreement.  The leader of the withdrawing butchers was a butcher named David Kovack, who owned a sausage factory whose sausages were sold all around Russia. He was supported by the wealthy and scholarly Zalman Drakovsky.  Rabbi Arlosoroff then ordered the other butchers not to slaughter meat for David Kovack. Kovack, in response, brought his own Shochet and Rabbi Yeshaya Susskind, the son of Rabbi Leib Betlen, a disciple of Baal Hatanya, to be his Machshir Rav.  In response, it was announced in the name of the Mara DeAtra that his Shechita was Psulah.  The affair led to a heated controversy. Leading rabbis including the Natziv of Volozhin, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchonon Spektor, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky, Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Meisel and more published letters and articles in contemporary press against the attempt to override Rabbi Arlosoroff.  These letters indicate the appreciation felt toward Rabbi Arlosoroff as a leading Rav, Gadol BaTorah.  In 1888, the new Rav passed away and peace returned to the city.  (See Rabbi Y. Monshine: ”פולמוס הרבנים והשוחטים בחרקוב”, Zechor LeAvraham, 1999, pp. 374-444).  As stated, after the passing of the Rav the Machshir, peace returned to the city.  This is a letter/broadside in Aramaic signed by the Mara DeAtra Rabbi  Arlosoroff, re-permitting the meat that was forbidden.  15X12 cm. Moth perforations. Good condition.