Letter signed by R. Elazar Menachem Shach, addressed to R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. [Bnei Brak], Shevat 1972.
Typescript letter, hand signed by R. Shach. R. Shach appeals to R. Elyashiv to donate "no less than 100 lira per year, to support the Chinuch HaAtzma’i…". At the beginning of the letter, R. Shach writes that "as a member of the directorate of Chinuch HaAtzma’i", he is deeply cognizant of the difficulties involved in managing educational institutions, and of the necessity for external financial support - "…and I know this with absolute certainty, with no exaggeration whatsoever".
R. Elazar Menachem Man Shach (1898-2002) was born in Lithuania, and studied in his youth in the Ponovezh, Slabodka and Slutsk yeshivot. He served as lecturer in the Kletsk yeshiva in Poland, and as dean of the Karlin yeshiva in Luninitz. During the Holocaust, he immigrated to Eretz Israel, and served as lecturer in the Kletsk yeshiva in Rechovot. He was later appointed lecturer and dean of the Ponovezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak. A member and leader of Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah, Chinuch HaAtzma’i and Vaad HaYeshivot, he stood at the helm of the Torah world for decades.
Already in the early 1970s, R. Shach entertained close ties with R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1910-2012), and conferred with him on halachic and communal matters. In 1973, they jointly went to war to safeguard observance of Halachah, against rabbis who wished to be lenient on marital laws and allow marriage with mamzerim. In 1989, with the establishment of the Degel HaTorah party by R. Shach, R. Elyashiv made his first public statement of support for R. Shach. In his final years (when he was close to one hundred years old), R. Shach transferred to R. Elyashiv the leadership of all the communal organizations he founded for Torah Jewry (the Degel HaTorah party, the Yated Ne’eman paper, Lev L’Achim and the She’erit Yisrael Kashrut system).
[1] leaf, official stationery. 24.5 cm. Good condition. Creases and folding marks.