Auction 51 Part I - Books Chassidism Manuscripts Rabbinical Letters
Letter from Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, to the Chazon Ish - Regarding the Rescue of the Mir Yeshiva from the Holocaust
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A long, interesting, letter by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, head of the Mir Yeshiva [Vilna]. Adar, 1940.
Sent to Bnei Brak to the Chazon Ish. In the letter, Rabbi Finkel relates the state of the yeshiva that "Our Father in Heaven in his great compassion has saved us from the great inferno that consumed our former place and showed us the way to rescue the She'erit HaPleita of the holy Torah. Together with all the yeshivas, we came to Lithuania, with us are about 300 dear Torah students who continue their study of the holy Torah and growth in holiness". In the rest of the letter, he tells of the exile of the yeshiva to Kėdainiai and of the attempts to replant the yeshiva in the USA or in Eretz Israel. He explains his opinion that the yeshiva should move to Eretz Israel and not to the USA, "because this is not our will and aspiration to move the yeshiva to the US, because this is not at all a continuation of what we call a yeshiva…and this will not save the Torah".
With the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Chaim Ozer instructed all the yeshivot in Lithuania to come to Vilna which was at that time under the provisional government of independent Lithuania. In the autumn of 1939, at the eruption of World War II, the Mir Yeshiva fled to Vilna and following the Russian occupation in the spring of 1940, it relocated to Kėdainiai in Northern-Lithuania. It then branched into four surrounding villages: Krekenava, Šėta, Kriukai and Ramygala. With the advance of the German occupation, the yeshiva was miraculously saved traveling the trans-Siberia train, then in dilapidated ships to Kobe, Japan and from there to Shanghai, China. The yeshiva remained in Shanghai for six years led by the mashgiach Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein and the Rosh Metivta Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz while the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel moved to Jerusalem and re-established the Mir Yeshiva without success in bringing his students with him to Jerusalem.
Official stationery, 28 cm. [2] typewritten pages, signed by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel. Fair condition. Wear and stains.
On Page [2] is a "kvittel" in the handwriting of the Chazon Ish with the name of a person who needs prayers and blessing.
Sent to Bnei Brak to the Chazon Ish. In the letter, Rabbi Finkel relates the state of the yeshiva that "Our Father in Heaven in his great compassion has saved us from the great inferno that consumed our former place and showed us the way to rescue the She'erit HaPleita of the holy Torah. Together with all the yeshivas, we came to Lithuania, with us are about 300 dear Torah students who continue their study of the holy Torah and growth in holiness". In the rest of the letter, he tells of the exile of the yeshiva to Kėdainiai and of the attempts to replant the yeshiva in the USA or in Eretz Israel. He explains his opinion that the yeshiva should move to Eretz Israel and not to the USA, "because this is not our will and aspiration to move the yeshiva to the US, because this is not at all a continuation of what we call a yeshiva…and this will not save the Torah".
With the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Chaim Ozer instructed all the yeshivot in Lithuania to come to Vilna which was at that time under the provisional government of independent Lithuania. In the autumn of 1939, at the eruption of World War II, the Mir Yeshiva fled to Vilna and following the Russian occupation in the spring of 1940, it relocated to Kėdainiai in Northern-Lithuania. It then branched into four surrounding villages: Krekenava, Šėta, Kriukai and Ramygala. With the advance of the German occupation, the yeshiva was miraculously saved traveling the trans-Siberia train, then in dilapidated ships to Kobe, Japan and from there to Shanghai, China. The yeshiva remained in Shanghai for six years led by the mashgiach Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein and the Rosh Metivta Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz while the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel moved to Jerusalem and re-established the Mir Yeshiva without success in bringing his students with him to Jerusalem.
Official stationery, 28 cm. [2] typewritten pages, signed by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel. Fair condition. Wear and stains.
On Page [2] is a "kvittel" in the handwriting of the Chazon Ish with the name of a person who needs prayers and blessing.
Holocaust and She'erit HaPletah - Letters, Documents and Books
Holocaust and She'erit HaPletah - Letters, Documents and Books