A moving letter from about the dire situation of the talmidim of the Novhardok yeshiva in Pinsk-Karlin.
"… a large Yeshiva of several hundred young men, a large part of whom are from Russia, who gave their lives for the Torah."
Pinsk, 1932. On official stationary.
The great Gaon Rabbi Shmuel Weintraub (1894-1942), an elder and close disciple of the Alter of Novardok, and a leading dean of Novardok yeshivot. Born in Proskurov, Ukraine, at the age of 13 he came to study in the Novardok yeshiva. He also studied for a while in Telz and Slutsk, yet always returned to the yeshiva of his teacher in Novardok. In 1918, the Alter of Novardok appointed him dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Berditchev. He was a prominent leader of the Beit Yosef network of yeshivot, and headed the escape operations of Novardok yeshivot, who escaped with their thousands of students from Bolshevik Russia to Poland.
Rabbi Shmuel established many branches of the yeshiva throughout Poland, and wandered with his yeshiva from place to place. In 1925, he transferred the yeshiva to Semiatyce. In 1927, he was appointed rabbi of Karlin, and founded a large yeshiva in nearby Pinsk. He summoned his colleague, Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky – the Steipler, to head the yeshiva alongside him. He passed away at the young age of 48.
For more biographical details please see Hebrew description.
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).
Tape stains, repaired tears, tear with loss of a few words. 18 Cm.
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Lot #196