Letter of Recommendation and Semicha – by Rabbi Yehoshua Bucksbaum of Galanta Author of "Or Pnei Yehoshua"

Letter of Recommendation and Semicha – by Rabbi Yehoshua Bucksbaum of Galanta Author of "Or Pnei Yehoshua"

Letter of Semicha (rabbinical ordination) and recommendation handwritten, signed and with the stamp of Rabbi Yehoshua Bucksbaum Av Beit Din of Galanta and the Galilee. Galanta, 1938.

The letter was given to his disciple Rabbi Menachem Ya'akov Rosenzweig of Nitra. The letter greatly praises the disciple, who is on his way to Jerusalem, "since he is decent and worthy of being supported and respected so that he will be able to rise in the Torah as he wishes…"

Rabbi Yehoshua Bucksbaum – the Rabbi of Galanta (1878-1944), was one of the leading heads of yeshiva in Hungary. A leading disciple of Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hoffman of Papa and Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg, the rabbi of Unsdorf who said of him: "Possibly he is the best of all my disicples and I am sure he will be one of Gedolei Israel". In his youth he became close to the Rebbe Rabbi Yechezkel Sherga of Shinva – who taught him Torah and Hassidism. In following years as well, he used to travel to contemporary Rebbes who greatly praised him. The Rebbe Rabbi Yissachar Dov of Belz said of him that "he became elevated on his own and he is so high and exalted". The Rebbe Rabbi Yisrael of Vuazhnitz said of him that he is a "pure Tzaddik". The Rebbe of Tshibin recalled that he met him several times in Marienbad and that he "looked like a Divine angel" (introduction of "Nachal Yehoshua" in the book "BeTzilo Chamadeti"). After his marriage in 1902 to the daughter of Rabbi Meir Chaim Bloch of Ohel, he moved there to study Torah until he was sent in 1910 by his rabbi, the "Be'er Shmuel", to serve as a rabbi on Gandorf, where he established an important yeshiva. Soon the yeshiva was too small for its hundreds of students and he was forced to moved to Galanta (in 1922). He had thousands of God-fearing disciples.

After the Holocaust, his remaining disciples established the "Union of Students", established Batei Midrash in his memory and published his books "Or Pnei Yehoshua" and "Nachal Yehoshua". These books contain dozens of his letters; however, the one before us does not appear in them and it is apparently unknown.

[1] leaf, official stationery. 16x23cm. Good condition. Minor fold marks. A minor stain in the center of the leaf blurring a few words.