Interesting assorted collection of fefteen letters from rabbis, Chassidim and pious laymen from Satmar, including Beit Din rulings, signed and stamped by the dayanim. [Satmar and surroundings, 1916-ca. 1950.] Hebrew and Yiddish.
• Letter of R. Eliyahu HaLevi Epstein of Satmar to R. Yosef Leib Sofer, Av Beit Din of Paks. Satmar, [1916]. The letter contains a fascinating description of the 1890 Seder night with R. Eliezer Zusman Sofer, Av Beit Din of Paks: "…While he was reciting the Hallel with purity and beauty, it was as if his worldly existence were nullified… Our legs were shivering and our hair was standing at its edge while we heard the express words of the greatest of the great…" [part of the letter is printed in Mizkeret Paks, II, p. 82]. At the bottom part of the leaf is a Kvitel inscription for a blessing with his and his mother's name, and the names of his wife and children.
• Lengthy Torah letter to R. Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich of Şimleu Silvaniei. One and a half pages, handwritten (not signed; on official stationery of the Jewish community of Șomcuta Mare). Apparently written by one of the town rabbis. [Șomcuta Mare], Isru Chag Shavuot [1931].
• Permission for an agunah to remarry, handwritten, signed and stamped by R. Eliyahu Leichtag, "dayan and posek of the Orthodox community of Satmar", with signatures of the dayanim who comprised the Beit Din: R. Shimshon Rosenberg ("Shimson son of R. Yehudah Leib Rosenberg") and R. Yaakov Leib Frankel ("Yaakov Leib Frankel, author of Gevurat Aryeh and Migdanot Maharil"). Satmar, 27 Shevat, 1932.
• Letter on a postcard, handwritten and signed by R. Yosef Shimon Pollak of Satmar, editor of the periodical Beit Vaad LaChachamim and author of Rashei Besamim. Satmar, 1929. Sent to his son in Budapest [apparently R. Moshe Yehudah Pollak, editor of the monthly periodical HaYeshivah]. In the letter, his father tells him of the Tishrei festivals in the company of his rebbe [apparently Rebbe Aharon Rokeach of Belz] and the holy rabbi of Carei [apparently Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum during his tenure as Av Beit Din of Carei]: "Your brother Chaim Yehoshua traveled home… and he was [with Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum] in Carei on Chol HaMoed, and he honored him greatly and also inquired about you… And I am weary from travel… since I slept no night before 3:00, because we stood by the door many nights to merit to enter, and afterwards all the days of the festival the meals ended every night at 4:00 – and there was no rain during the festival… And what can I say, having seen his service day and night, and all his followers standing before him in fear – If God wills it, I will travel next Sunday to the Tzaddik of Carei [Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum] for him to sign permitting the agunah to remarry… Yosef Shimon".
• Letter on postcard, handwritten and signed by R. Yosef Shimon Pollak of Satmar, editor of the periodical Beit Vaad LaChachamim and author of Rashei Besamim. Satmar, 1936. Sent to R. Menashe Margaliot in Brooklyn, New York, regarding printing his novellae.
• Two letters from the "Beit Din Tzedek of the Orthodox community of Satmar and the region", signed by dayan and posek of Satmar R. Yishai Hecht Weintraub. Satmar, [Shevat and Adar] 1949. The letters deal with saving copies of Responsa Avnei Zikaron which were left sitting in the printing house of R. Meir Leib Hirsch in Satmar, "so that strangers not possess them and for the honor of the Torah not to be desecrated". The first letter was sent to the author, R. Alter Shaul Pfeffer, and the second letter was sent to his son, R. Meir Yehudah Pfeffer, who informed him that his father had long since passed away [R. Alter Shaul Pfeffer had passed away in the United States in 1936], and he asks the son to pay the expenses of recovering the books and sending them to him.
• Lengthy letter handwritten and signed by "Yissachar Dov son of R. Tz. of Veretzka (Nyzhni Vorota), grandson of R. A.A. of Brod". Request for help and financial assistance from R. Yitzchak Sodden, rabbi of Ohev Shalom synagogue in Brooklyn. Satmar, [13 Sivan], 1929. The author is the Chassid R. Yissachar Dov Weinberger (ca. 1871-1944, perished in the Holocaust), a Belz Chassid and leader of Satmar, descended from the Fränkel-Teomim family.
• Permission to marry, handwritten, signed and stamped by R. Yitzchak Klein, Rosh Av Beit Din of Satmar [editor of the monthly Torah periodical Ohel Yitzchak and HaMaggid]. Satmar, [30 Adar], 1942.
• Three letters from the "Beit Din of the Orthodox community of Satmar and the region" – after the Holocaust, records of testimony on people who perished in the Holocaust and permission to remarry. One of them is signed by the three dayanim: Rosh Av Beit Din R. Moshe Aryeh Freund, R. Shlomo Zalman Friedman and R. Avraham Tzvi Weiss. Satmar, 1946-1947.
• Letter to Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar from Mrs. Esther Wiesel. Satmar, [apparently after the Holocaust]. Yiddish. The letter is torn and incomplete. • Letter to Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar from the mashgiach R. Yechiel Yehudah Wallengstein. [Ca. 1950s.] Yiddish.
• Letter signed and stamped by R. Yechiel Ausch, Av Beit Din of Vulcan and after the war dayan and posek in Satmar; a request for help and assistance for the upcoming Passover festival by R. Yitzchak Sodden, rabbi of Ohev Shalom synagogue in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, New York, [ca. 1950s]. Yiddish.
• Enclosed: Early facsimile of a letter (four large pages) by the Chassid R. Yirmeyahu Kahn (written in Iyar, 1963), in which he describes at length the Seder night and days of the Passover festival he spent with Rebbe Yoel of Satmar, and reviews the Torah teachings and novellae he heard from the rebbe at the time.
16 items. Varying size and condition. Overall good condition. One letter in fair condition.
