Bidspirit auction | Postcard in the Handwriting of

Postcard in the Handwriting of the Holy Rabbi Alter Yechiel Tzvi Unger of Safed HY”D – Heartfelt Plea for Assistance on Behalf of His Orphaned Brothers and Sisters – Safed, Tammuz 1927 A heartrending letter in which Rabbi Alter appeals to Rabbi Yitzchak Sadin of Brooklyn for financial support for his young orphaned brothers and sisters, left without parents: “…and I am sending to his honored self a small sprig of hyssop which I gathered from around the grave of the holy Arizal zy”a, so that my memory will be brought before him, to heed my request, which is the plea of my young orphaned brothers and sisters, left abandoned without father or mother, and I have no strength to quiet their hunger – may Hashem have mercy…” The holy Rabbi Alter Yechiel Tzvi Unger (1900–1936) was of illustrious lineage, grandson of Rabbi Mordechai David Unger of Dombrova. In Sivan 1926, he married Rebbetzin Chaya Rivka née Lifshitz (granddaughter of the tzaddikim Rabbi Shalom of Belz and Rabbi Yehoshua of Tomashov). He earned his livelihood as a scribe (sofer sta”m). During the 1936 riots (Meora’ot 5696), on Thursday night, 26 Av 1936, Arab rioters, may their names be blotted out, stormed his home in the Jewish quarter of Safed and shot his son and two daughters as they slept on a mat in the room. Awakened by the shots, Rabbi Alter rushed from the adjoining room and witnessed the murder of his three children before his eyes. The rioters then hurled explosives, killing him as well. His wife, who tried to shield the children, was wounded. The massacre shook the entire Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael. Besides the shock that gripped the Jewish people, leading halachic authorities around the world were called upon to rule whether his widow required Chalitzah, since their nine-year-old daughter succumbed to her wounds a few hours after her father’s death. Numerous responsa on this tragic case appear in the writings of great poskim, including Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank, and many others. This halachic discussion is cited at length in Shu”t Tzitz Eliezer, part I, siman 23 and onward. 14 cm. Good condition. Minor defects at margins.