Two lengthy letters handwritten and signed by R. Nissan Eckstein Rabbi of Kuzhnitza (Kuźnica). Kuzhnitza (Grodno region), Sivan 1929 / Av 1929.
Both letters were sent to his good friend, R. Aharon Kohen (later a dean of the Hebron yeshiva). In the first letter, he congratulates him for his marriage to the daughter of "the outstanding Torah scholar, R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein". The letter continues with three pages of Torah novellae on the Talmudic topics of Hekdesh and Arachin.
In the second letter, dated Sunday of Parashat Re'eh 1929 (the day after the terrible Shabbat of the Hebron massacre, 18th Av 1929), R. Nissan at first continues discussing these topics. In the middle of the third page, he stops recording his Torah thoughts and instead, writes a lamentation poem he composed upon hearing the terrible news of the massacre of the yeshiva students in Hebron.
In the lamentation, he provides a graphic description of the massacre of the holy yeshiva students. He describes how the beautiful sounds of their Torah study were abruptly disrupted, and how their souls, together with the Torah they studied, rose to the Heavens, where our holy forefathers came out of their graves in Me'arat HaMachpela to greet them. He depicts the terrified yeshiva students hiding from the mobs, and highlights the disparity between the lowly murderers and the noble victims, who in their dying moments, while being savagely attacked, attempted to save their friends by shielding them with their own body.
R. Nissan Eckstein (perished in the Holocaust), outstanding Torah scholar, one of the leading young rabbis of Lithuania. He was an associate of R. Shimon Shkop and R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
2 letters: [1] double leaf, 20 cm; [1] double leaf, 35 cm (altogether 8 written pages). Condition varies, first letter in good condition, second letter with wear and tears (repaired with tape).