Bidspirit auction | Ḥayyei Olam — a polemical

Ḥayyei Olam — a polemical collection by R. Meir Lerner of Altona. Berlin 1905 — first edition. - A compendium of the letters of the great sages of the generation concerning the burial of cremated remains when a public road was constructed over a cemetery, and concerning the burial of the ashes of those who requested that their bodies be burned; and in opposition to the book Or ha-Emet. A collection containing many dozens of responsa from the great sages of the generation throughout the world — a unique window into the Torah world of that era! The book contains the letters of the leading sages of that period from across the globe — among them the author of Arukh ha-Shulḥan, Rabbi David of Karlin (author of She’eilat David), the Keli Ḥemdah, the Rogatchover, the Ben Ish Ḥai, the Beit Yitzḥak, the Minḥat Elʿazar of Munkacs, and many more dozens of rabbis. The controversy over the burial of the ashes of those who were cremated: At the end of the nineteenth century a plague spread among Israel: wishing to imitate the Gentiles, many Jews requested that their bodies be burned after death. The question then arrived before the great sages of the generation: whether the ashes of such sinners should be buried in a Jewish burial. The gaon Rabbi Meir Lerner, rabbinic judge of Altona, gathered the responsa of the great sages of the generation, ruling with the utmost severity that it is strictly forbidden.