The Nesivos Shalom’s Stirring Handwritten Portrayal of the Lighting of the First Chanukah Candle in Slonim. Baranowicz, 1933
In the month of Iyar, 5693 (1933), the venerable Beis Avraham of Slonim passed away suddenly when he was only 49 years old. Orphaned of their spiritual leader, the bereft chassidim hung their hopes on his young son Harav Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua to succeed his father as Rebbe in the Holy Court of Slonim. Following the encouragement of his Chavrusah and older cousin, the Nesivos Shalom, Rabbi Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua accepted the reins of the Chassidus.
In his trademark beautiful, stirring prose, the Nesivos Shalom describes the very first time that Rabbi Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua hosted a public Hadlakah and lit Chanukah candles before his Chassidim. Initially, the young Rebbe shied away from lighting publicly in the same place where his father had lit his menorah. (Until that point, he had likewise avoided sitting in his father’s vacant seat and sat beside it instead.)
The Nesivos Shalom vividly portrays the recitation of the blessings followed by ‘V’yehi noam’ and the elevated singing and dancing that mirrored the mixed emotions of joy and sadness manifested by hundreds of orphaned Chassidim.
During that auspicious event, Rabbi Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua lit the menorah that had originally belonged to his ancestor the Chessed L’Avraham, despite the fact that he had recently received a beautiful new menorah as a gift from his father-in-law, the Akeidas Yitzchak of Alexander.
This letter was sent by the Nesivos Shalom to Teveria on the first day of Chanukah, 5694 (1933) during the period of his engagement. It was addressed to “My future brother-in-law” [presumably Rabbi Zelig, son of the Birkas Avraham].
The verso features a handwritten letter by the Birkas Avraham in Hebrew and Yiddish.
Baranowicz, 5693/1933. Folded, double-sided leaf. Page size: 20×12 cm. Reinforced on spine with all text intact. Good condition. This letter was not printed in Nesivos Shalom-Michtavei Kodesh (Jerusalem, 2014).
The Nesivos Shalom of Slonim (1911-2000) was one of the illustrious Rebbes of the past generation. A son-in-law of Harav Avraham of Slonim, author of Birkas Avraham, he rebuilt the Slonimer Chassidus after the Holocaust, founding numerous yeshivos and Torah institutions. A universal Torah leader, he served as Nasi of Chinuch Atzmai in Eretz Yisrael and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael. His popular Nesivos Shalom series is regarded as a fundamental work in Chassidic philosophy and Chinuch and is studied extensively around the world.
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