Collection of letters written by R. Michael Dov Weissmandl to a student of his yeshiva and his parents. Trnava, Nitra, Vienna and various places, ca. 1930-1934.
Eighteen letters written by the young R. Michael Dov Weismandl to one of his disciples (a young member of the yeshiva), to persuade and encourage him to continue studying Torah in the Trnava and Nitra yeshivas (it appears from the letters that the student was unable to do so for various reasons). The letters are written in a poetic, pleasant and heartfelt tone. In some of them he asks the parents to grant their son permission to visit his teachers for the festival, and in other letters he persuades them that their son should continue to study in the yeshiva. In a letter from Tishrei 1931, he writes to them: "To what can the matter be compared, in my view? To a sapling planted in good soil with good rainfall and a gentle breeze. Then one person came along reasoning to uproot it in order to plant it in a place that was better for it in his opinion. This person is nothing if not astonishing, since there are several uncertainties involved: the good soil is uncertain, the good rainfall is uncertain, the gentle breeze is uncertain; and even if these are not uncertain, perhaps uprooting the trunk would damage the feeble roots that need to be strengthened and absorb nutrients, such that its loss negates its gain… So too we say to him: Here was his place and here he was, do not seek better than good…". In one letter he writes to his disciple: "I received your pleasant words and I delighted because of them… because I confirmed that you are a faithful man. Only be strong and persevere, do not fear and be broken, and may G-d be with you, and may you succeed wherever you turn. And I was most delighted to hear that your parents agreed to permit you to come here for the first days of the upcoming festival of Pesach, and I am confident that these few days will benefit you greatly, days of true happiness that you will never forget…".
In another letter he sends an affectionate rebuke: "The Sages say that a thousand enter the study hall and one of them leaves as he should. When I found you, I thought to myself that you would be this one out of a thousand. I saw you had skills and tools capable of making you such. But in this unbridled and corrupt generation… Lust, insolence, schism and heresy strain, as it were, the Divine Presence… and cause the special Jewish quality to be forgotten from the vast majority of our people. In this leaderless generation, every person with a good heart expects at a moment's notice to see soldiers dedicate their lives, strength and honor to G-d and the Torah. And such a soldier needs one thing, indeed only one thing, namely a 'pure soul'. And a pure soul is attained through fear of heaven and the very utmost fear of heaven, for there is no end. And if there is no fear, there is no soul and there is no spirit, and no power, mind, wisdom or sharpness will be of any use… I have always thought, my dear beloved, that you would grow in age and have peace of mind, and you would fill your soul to the brim with love of Torah and fear of heaven, and you would have endless desire and unbounded longing to recognize the truth, to learn, understand and comprehend and be a hero in the Torah's war to the point that no wind in the world could move you from your place…".

R. Michael Dov Weissmandl (1904-1958), tremendous Torah scholar, prominent rescue activist during the Holocaust, dean of the Nitra yeshiva and its founder in the United States. Known from his youth as a brilliant genius and very erudite, he would study Torah with incredible diligence and concentration. When his great teacher R. Shmuel David Ungar came to serve as Rabbi of Trnava in 1918, the young Michael Dov (who lived in the city) became attached to him as his close disciple. When his teacher relocated to serve as Rabbi of Nitra in 1931, his young disciple R. Michael Dov relocated along with him to assist his teacher in establishing the great yeshiva in Nitra. As a young man R. Michael Dov became one of the most influential individuals in his teacher's yeshiva (as can be discerned from the present letters, written to one of the young yeshiva students who was over 10 years younger than him). In 1937 he married Brachah Rachel, daughter of his teacher R. Shmuel David Ungar, Rabbi of Nitra and dean of the yeshiva.
While still young, R. Michael Dov aspired to meet the leading Torah scholars all over the world. To that end he purchased a travel pass for all European trains and traveled from city to city to meet and stay with Torah leaders all over Europe. He also printed and edited books, going so far as to travel to the Oxford Bodleian Library in order to copy ancient manuscripts. During the Holocaust he devised various daring methods to save Jews from the Nazis, including the "Europa Plan" he conceived together with the underground Working Group in Slovakia. He described his actions during the Holocaust in his book Min HaMetzar. Miraculously, he managed to escape from a train on its way to Auschwitz and reached Switzerland through the Kastner train. In 1946 he reached the United States, where he reestablished the Nitra yeshiva. His Torat Chemed, published posthumously in 1958, presents examples of his famous discovery of Torah codes (for his biography see at length: Avraham Chaim Eliyahu Weissmandl, Ish Chamudot, New York, 2008).

18 letters, some very lengthy, six of them on postcards (one postcard damaged, with ending and signature torn off). Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Filing holes.