Bidspirit auction | “HaGaon, the author of the

“HaGaon, the author of the Chafetz Chaim Shlita, will come here on Monday, in order to travel to Bialystok on Thursday next” – postcard from Rabbi Yosef Shub, one of the administrators of the Vaad HaYeshivot in Vilna, to the Mashgiach Rabbi Leib Chasman, regarding the visit of Maran the Chafetz Chaim in support of the Vaad. Vilna, 1924. Postcard in the handwriting of the distinguished Askan Rabbi Yosef Shub, the right-hand man of Maran, the leader of the generation, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, reporting on the Chafetz Chaim’s visit to Lithuania and Poland, and on planned activities for the benefit of the Vaad HaYeshivot. Vilna, 30 Cheshvan 5685 [1924]. [1] official postcard of Rabbi Chaim Ozer and of the “Central Committee for the Yeshivot in Lithuania–Poland, ” in the handwriting and with the signature of Rabbi Yosef Shub. In the postcard, Rabbi Shub specifies the scheduled visit of Maran the Chafetz Chaim, who personally undertook, despite his advanced age and the hardship of travel, to strengthen and support the Vaad HaYeshivot. The present postcard is an answer to a letter from Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman, written on 28 Cheshvan 5685, two days earlier. See his letter in Tiferet Auctions, Sale 22, lot 57. Vaad HaYeshivot – founded in Vilna in 1924 at the initiative of the Gaon, the Chafetz Chaim, and the Gaon Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. The committee represented the dozens of yeshivot active in Eastern Europe and ensured their financial support. It established an organized fundraising system in hundreds of communities, with the help of rabbis and askanim who encouraged donations. Rabbi Yosef Shub HY”D (1897–1942) – disciple of the Saba of Slabodka and son-in-law of Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz, Av Beit Din of Minsk. He served as the personal secretary and confidant of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski and acted on his behalf in many public matters, including international Agudath Israel affairs. He managed the central office of the Vaad HaYeshivot in Vilna and was one of the editors of its journal, Das Wort. See: Eleh Ezkerah, vol. I, p. 247. Maran the Mashgiach Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman (1869–1936) – spiritual director of the Telz and Hebron yeshivot and one of the great mussar teachers of his generation. He studied under the Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer and the Saba of Slabodka, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and also learned for a year in Kelm under the Saba Rabbi Simcha Zissel. After marriage, he spent a year at the Volozhin Yeshiva. He served in the rabbinate of Shtutyn and in the Telz Yeshiva. After ascending to Eretz Yisrael, he became Mashgiach of the Hebron Yeshiva. His teachings were collected in Yahal Ohr. Stains, including mold remnants, damaged corner, folding mark, overall fair condition.