Bidspirit auction | Remarkable Letter from Rabbi Yeshaya

Remarkable Letter from Rabbi Yeshaya Zilberstein Declining to Serve as Sandak in order to Teach Torah in Yeshivah! * A moving handwritten and autographed letter by Rabbi Yeshaya Zilberstein, Av Beis Din and Rosh Yeshiva in Weitzen (Vác), one of the most prominent Torah leaders in Hungary and a leading halachic authority of his time. The letter was sent to his brother-in-law who was blessed with the birth of a son and wanted to honor Rabbi Yeshaya with the role of sandak at the bris milah. In a display of remarkable humility, Rabbi Yeshaya responds in the letter: ”Certainly, with all my heart, I would have been honored to fulfill this great mitzvah, but in truth, it is not possible at this time, due to the need to avoid disrupting the Torah study of the many, as it is now the beginning of the zman, and I must start learning with the yeshiva students this very week… everything depends on the beginning!” He then blesses him: ”And now I offer once again my heartfelt congratulations. May you merit to bring him into the covenant of our forefather Avraham, and just as you bring him into the covenant, so too may Hashem grant him the merit to enter Torah, marriage, and good deeds.” Rabbi Yeshaya Zilberstein (1857-1930) , whose written legacy is eternalized in his magnum opus ‘Ma’ase Lamelech’ on the Rambam, was the son of the Shvilei Dovid and a leading Hungarian Rabbi who served as Rav of Weitzen for forty-six years. Already in his early youth, he corresponded with the greatest Torah luminaries of his times, among them Maharam Schick and Ma'agalei Tzedek. Throughout his life, he fought to uphold Orthodox tradition and strongly opposed the rising Neolog movement. In the letter, he mentions his yeshiva in Weitzen, expressing his pride in it: ”Praise be to Hashem, I have a large yeshiva, with around eighty outstanding and G-d fearing students.” His brother-in-law, Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, Av Beis Din of Derecske (1873–1943), was the youngest son of Rabbi Eliezer Zussman Sofer, Av Beis Din of Paks and was a disciple of the Shevet Sofer in Pressburg. From 1903, he served as the Rav of Derecske, succeeding his brother, Rabbi Yosef Leib Sofer, who had moved to Paks. His works include Divrei Sofrim in three volumes and teshuvos (Chasam Sofer U’Talmidav, p. 618). In his second marriage, Rabbi Yeshaya Zilberstein was the son-in-law of Rabbi Feivel Klein of Zenta, who had arranged the marriage of his sister-in-law Devorah Breindel, daughter of Rabbi Feivel, to Rabbi Shmuel Binyamin Sofer in 1898 (less than a year before this letter was written), making them brothers-in-law. Weitzen, 1899. Size: 8.5 × 14.4 cm. Condition: Good, with light fold marks.