A letter by Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer Av Beit Din of Pressburg, to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ulman Av Beit Din of Mako. Pressburg, 1859.
The letter is in reply to the letter of the author of Yeriot Shlomo that requested that he join those who prohibit something that the reformists wished to permit. The Ktav Sofer writes in reply: "and he has asked a difficult thing from me to write in a manner of imposing a prohibition on this… and to write that the thing is prohibited, they certainly will not accept this because they will say that this is not prohibited, especially since the reformists have permitted…".
The Gaon Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer (1815-1872), the firstborn son of the Chatam Sofer and his successor in the Rabbanut and as the Head of the Pressburg Yeshiva. One of the greatest rabbis of his generation. His disciples were senior rabbis in Hungary and its surroundings. His compilations of responsa, his novella on the Talmud and on the Torah were called by the name Ktav Sofer.
The recipient of the letter: The Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ulman (1792-1863), author of Yeriot Shlomo, amongst the great Hungarian rabbis, was appointed to the Rabbanut by the efforts of the Chatam Sofer and he served decades as the Rabbi of the city of Mako.
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was a relative of the Ktav Sofer. His father-in-law was Rabbi Simcha Bunim Eiger, the Rav of Mattersdorf, the brother of Rabbi Akiva Eiger and the uncle of the Ktav Sofer's mother. This relationship is noted in the titles opening the letter: "my relative by marriage the Rabbi the Gaon the Kadosh…". Already during the life of the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was amongst the senior rabbis of Hungary that supported the systems set up by the Chatam Sofer for guarding the religion and Torah law, opposing the reformists belonging to the circles of neologism. The echoes of this struggle we find in this historic letter.
28.5cm. Poor condition, many damages from ink burns.