Bidspirit auction | Wedding Blessings from Rabbi Pinchas

Wedding Blessings from Rabbi Pinchas HaKohen Steiner, Av Beis Din of Ilok, and his son Rabbi Yosef Meir Moshe (son-in-law of Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein) 1909 * Handwritten and autographed letter of congratulations on the occasion of a wedding, by Rabbi Pinchas HaKohen Steiner, Av Beis Din of Ilok and author of ‘Brisi Shalom’. With characteristic eloquence and warmth, he blesses: ”May it be the will of our Father in Heaven that this match be blessed with success in Torah, avodah, blessing, and prosperity. May my dear friend, may he live, merit many more mitzvos—for it is a greater mitzvah to perform it oneself than through a messenger—and may he merit to see sons and daughters engaged in Torah and mitzvos alongside his ... wife, in both physical and spiritual health, until the voice of joy shall be heard in the cities of Yehudah and the streets of Yerushalayim…” At the bottom of the letter, an additional three lines of blessing were handwritten and signed by his son, Rabbi Yosef Meir Moshe, who succeeded his father as Av Beis Din of Ilok. A letter from the two Rabbanim, both father and son together, is extremely rare! Rabbi Pinchas HaKohen Steiner (1845–1913) was one of the Rabbanim of Hungary. His friend Rabbi Yosef Leib Sofer of Paks testified, “Already in his youth, all who saw him recognized that he would become one of the gedolei hador and a great tzaddik.” (See Drashos Yalkut Sofer, p. 270.) He was a distinguished talmid of the revered brothers—the author of ‘Machaneh Chayim’ (to whom he refers to in this letter, thanking him for a copied leaf of his chiddushim), and Rabbi Eliezer Zusman Sofer, who loved him as a son. Rabbi Pinchas established a yeshivah in Paks, and in 1890 he relocated to the city of Ilok, where he served as Av Beis Din and opened another yeshivah. His son, Rabbi Yosef Meir Moshe Steiner (1881–1938), was a talmid of the Kedushas Yom Tov of Sighet and a close friend of the Atzei Chaim of Sighet. From 1913 he served as Av Beis Din of Ilok, stepping into the role after the passing of his father. He married the daughter of the renowned tzaddik Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein of Kolomyia. Rabbi Yosef Meir Moshe authored ‘Afikei Mayim’, a comprehensive work in fourteen volumes. All but one were lost in the Holocaust; the surviving volume was printed in recent years. Ilok, 1909. Date determined based on postal stamps. Size: Approx. 9x14 cm postcard. Condition: Good.