A letter of greetings and apologies. First page in the hand & signature of his son the Gaon Rabbi Aryeh Leib Levin. The second page with 5 lines & signature in the Holy hand of the Gaon the Rosh LaReuveni.

Denenburg, 1886.

Letters of him are Rare.

The famous Gaon Rabbi Reuven HaLevi Levi Rabbi of Denenburg (1815-1887). Leading Lithuanian Torah scholar. Close disciple of Rabbi Aryeh Leib Shapiro Rabbi of Smorgon and Kovno. In his youth, he was already considered a foremost Torah scholar of the generation, with his profound understanding and original novellae plumbing the depth of Talmudic topics. He served as rabbi in various cities: Ilya, Ivyanets, Omtchislav (Mstsislaw) and others. In 1879, he was appointed rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Dvinsk (then named Dinaburg, Denenburg). Ranked amongst the leading Torah scholars of the generation, he was regularly summoned to meetings of foremost Torah scholars with Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan, and his opinion on current matters was weighed with serious consideration by all Lithuanian rabbis.

In 1879, he was appointed by Lithuanian Torah leaders as one of the three rabbis who would advise on matters of religion and Halacha, at the rabbi’s convention in St Petersburg (together with Rabbi Lipa of Mir and Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer of Vilna). Thanks to his lobbying, the government recognized the Orthodox rabbinate’s absolute authority over divorce and marriage in the Jewish community. His Sefer Rosh LaReuveni was printed many years following his passing, and contains only a small part of his brilliant novellae, which at the time stirred the world of Torah erudition in Lithuania.

Recipient of the letter: His disciple the Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Volk, Av Beis Din of Pinsk and author of Kesser Kehunah (1857-1907). Harav Tzvi Hirsch Volk was a disciple of the Beis Halevi and received semichah from the author of the Rosh L’Reuveni. He was a son-in-law of the Gaon Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Jaffe (who is also mentioned in this letter) Rav of Pinsk after Hagaon Harav Elazar Moshe Horowitz.

27 X 21 Cm.

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Lot #228

Rare Letter by the Gaon Rabbi Reuven HaLevi Rabbi of Denenburg (Dvinsk) Author of Rosh LaReuveni, 1886.

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