"Let us bless your greatness with all the blessings and we will all have the privilege of seeing the redemption of Israel and the coming of the Messiah speedily in our days, Amen."

Kaminetz, 1939. On official stationery of the Kneseth Beth Isaac Yeshiva, with illustration of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchonon.

In the letter, Rabbi Baruch Ber implores Rabbi Segal to accept the sharp young man David Dov Oberdarfer from Berlin to his yeshiva in Manchester thereby saving his life "Because German boys, etc. They do not have a permit to stay either in our country because of the wrath of the harasser or in another country. And what will this poor man do should he fly in the air [?]"

The Holy Gaon Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz (1870-1939), one of Gedolei Hador. Was renowned for his holiness and piousness, alongside his great genius. A leading disciple of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk. In his youth, he established in Kremenchuk a yeshiva, which he headed. In 1904, he was appointed the Rosh Yeshiva of the "Knesses Beis Yitzchak" Yeshiva in Slobodka which was established by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Rabinowitz the son of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchonon Spektor and the Rav of Kovno,   which moved to Vilna and then to Kaminetz. He authored the Seforim of Birkas Shmuel on the Shas, which are inalienable assets of the religious world.

The recipient the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak HaLevi Segal (1881-1947), a disciple of the Alter of Novardok. A founder of the Etz Chaim yeshiva in London, he also established the Manchester yeshiva, which he headed for some 35 years.

Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak was an outstanding Torah scholar and an exalted Tzaddik. He devoted himself to disseminating Torah, and many of the rabbis of that time were his disciples (including Rabbi Shaul Wagschal of Gateshead, Rabbi Shmuel Alexander Unsdorfer, and others). Hegyonei Moharsha (p. 18, see enclosed copy) brings the wondrous testimony of two of his disciples, whose deceased father appeared to R. Moshe Yitzchak in a dream, requesting that he carefully supervise his orphaned sons. R. Moshe Yitzchak related the dream to them and asked them not to publicize it.

His son and successor as dean of the yeshiva was Rabbi Yehuda Ze’ev Segal (1911-1993), a holy Tzaddik and wonder-worker, who was very active in raising the awareness of the importance of guarding one’s speech, and was known as the Chafetz Chaim of England).

Tears, tape stains & filing holes. 29.7 Cm.

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Lot #248

Letter of request by the great Gaon Rabbi Baruch Ber Levovitz of Kaminetz to the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Segal of Manchester. 1939.

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