Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Vilna, 1910 – On Rabbinic Issues and Halachic Decisions

Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Vilna, 1910 – On Rabbinic Issues and Halachic Decisions

Letter handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Kislev 1910.

Addressed to R. Tzvi Hirsch Steinman, rabbi and posek in Nizhny Novgorod. R. Tzvi Steinman had apparently submitted a halachic ruling to R. Chaim Ozer for his approval. R. Chaim Ozer responds that R. Tzvi Steinman ruled correctly.

R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a foremost rabbi of his generation and leader of European Jewry. He was the son of R. David Shlomo Grodzinski Rabbi of Iwye. He was renowned from his childhood for his exceptional brilliance. He entered the Volozhin yeshiva at the young age of 11, and became a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk. At the age of 24, he was appointed rabbi and posek of Vilna, succeeding his father-in-law R. Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnansky, a posek in Vilna (son-in-law of R. Yisrael Salanter). He assumed the yoke of public leadership from a young age, and his opinion was conclusive on all public issues which arose throughout the Jewish world for close to fifty years. His authority is evidenced by the present letter, in which a childhood friend from yeshiva, holding a rabbinical position, submits his ruling to him for approval.

The recipient of the letter, R. Tzvi Steinman (ca. 1865-1947), Rabbi of Rechovot, a student of the Volozhin yeshiva [where R. Chaim Ozer also studied in his youth]. Served as a lecturer in the Smorgon yeshiva, and later for about twenty years as Rabbi of Nizhny Novgorod. In 1925 he immigrated to Eretz Israel and was appointed Rabbi of Yavne'el, and two years later, of Rechovot, where he served for some twenty years.

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 20.5 cm. 7 lines in his handwriting. Good-fair condition. Stains, wear and folding marks.