Lot 280
Two Immigration Certificates – Certificate of Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv, the Leshem, and Certificate of the Family of his Son-in-Law Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv – Only Photograph of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in his Youth, Together with his Parents
Two "Immigrant Certificate" booklets, filled in by hand and stamped by the "Palestine Office" in Constantinople. [1924].
One certificate belongs to the holy Kabbalist R. Shlomo Elyashov (author of the Leshem), and the second one is for his daughter Chaya and son-in-law R. Avraham Elyashov (who during the course of their escape from Russia and immigration to Eretz Israel, adopted the fictitious name "David Popko"), together with their son Yosef Shalom. This certificate contains a photograph of R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's parents, together with their only son the young Yosef Shalom, who was then 13 and a half years old (this is the only copy in the world of this original photograph, showing R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv together with his parents. The photograph was taken in Constantinople for this passport, and there are no other known copies of it).
Certificates resembling legal passports, which served as travel documents and identity cards. Bearing medical stamps, and other details. The details filled in by hand in these certificates disclose facts about the immigration to Eretz Israel of the Leshem together with his daughter's family: R. Shlomo Elyashov at the time of their immigration was 82 years old (born in Žagarė in 1842 according to this certificate), his son-in-law R. Avraham was (apparently) 51 years old. His daughter Chaya was 48, and their son Yosef Shalom 13. The name of R. Shlomo Elyashov's acquaintance in Eretz Israel was R. Kook – "His acquaintance, R. Kook, Jerusalem", and their immigration was supposedly upon the request of R. Kook. They registered for immigration on March 2, 1924 and left Constantinople on a boat headed for Jaffa on March 6, 1924. In R. Shlomo Elyashov's certificate, the photograph is lacking (it was removed many years ago, together with some of the paper, presumably for publicizing the photograph).
The holy Kabbalist R. Shlomo Elyashiv (Elyashov, Elyashoff), author of the Leshem (1841-1926) was a leading Lithuanian Kabbalist. His notes on Etz Chaim were printed in the Warsaw 1891 edition under the title Hagahot HaRav SheVaCh (Shlomo ben Chaim Chaikel), appellation the Sephardi rabbis were fond of calling him by. His series of books on Kabbalah named Leshem Shevo V'Achlama were published in 1909-1948, and are considered fundamental works on the study of Kabbalah. He was received in Jerusalem with great honor by the leading Sephardi and Ashkenazi Kabbalists, especially R. Shaul Dweck, dean of the Rechovot HaNahar yeshiva who had exchanged correspondence with him all the years, and the Chief Rabbi R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, his disciple in Kabbalah already during the time the Leshem lived in Šiauliai.
R. Avraham Elyashov (Elyashiv; 1878-1943), the rabbi from Homel (Gomel), was the son of R. Moshe Levinson from Oran (Varėna). He was later compelled to change his surname to Popka (Popko; Popkin), (he presumably utilized the fictitious passport of a Jew named "David son of Yehuda Simcha Popkin", and when matters complicated with the authorities, he also changed his private name to "[Avraham] David son of Yehuda Simcha"). Following his immigration to Eretz Israel, he changed his surname to that of his father-in-law, R. Shlomo Elyashov.
His only son R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was a leading halachic authority in our generation. A dayan in the Jerusalem Beit Din, he served for close to seventy years as rabbi and lecturer in the Tiferet Bachurim community in Jerusalem, in place of his father R. Avraham from Homel, founder of Tiferet Bachurim.
Two booklets, approx. 15.5 cm. Overall good condition. Stains and light wear. Some scribbles (in pencil and ink). In one certificate, open tear in place of the photograph. Original, light blueish card cover with the printed inscription "Te'udat Aliya" in the center of a Magen David emblem.
