Rare Letter by Harav Shaul Halevi Katzenellenbogen, Av Beis Din of Kossov & Kobrin – Grandfather of Chazon Ish
Handwritten, signed letter by Hagaon Harav Shaul Halevi Katzenellenbogen to his son-in-law Hagaon Harav Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz, father of the Chazon Ish; letter by Rebbetzin Rasha Leah Karelitz, mother of the Chazon Ish on verso.
Harav Shaul Halevi Katzenellenbogen (1828-1892), Av Beis Din of Kossov & Kobrin, was the great-grandson of Harav Aryeh Leib Epstein who authored the Pardes. He was esteemed among contemporary Lithuanian gedolim and Rabbanim for his awesome piety and self-abstinence. As a follower of the Vilna Gaon, he was exceedingly stringent in the fulfillment of mitzvos. His prolific writings and responsa were destroyed in a terrible conflagration that raged through Kossov.
His son-in-law Harav Shmaryahu Yosef Karelitz succeeded him as Av Beis Din of Kossov, and his eulogy upon his revered father-in-law was printed in a pamphlet entitled Givat Shaul (Warsaw, 1892). His great-grandson is Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, contemporary leader of world Torah Jewry.
Upon his passing, Harav Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, Av Beis Din of Kovno, dispatched a letter of condolence to the kehillah in Kobrin. “Woe is to us upon the great catastrophe, for our crown jewel Hagaon Harav Shaul zt”l was taken from us, and my heart is shattered within me, and all the House of Israel shall bewail this inferno…” (Givat Shaul p. 8)
The Chazon Ish’s mother, Rebbetzin Rasha Leah Karelitz, was a pious and learned woman who journeyed to Eretz Yisrael to settle near her son. She would pray regularly in the home of the Chazon Ish, who always brought his mother a lectern for prayers and then escorted her home. She passed away in 1941.
The first side features a long letter in Yiddish by Rebbetzin Rasha Leah, signed 3 times, and on the verso is a letter from her father Harav Shaul Katzenellenbogen.
Kossov, undated (prior to 1892). Page size: 17×22 cm. Tear on the top of the right side with omission on the top lines.
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