Handwritten & Autographed Divrei Torah by the
Rogatchover
Dvinsk, 1934
This letter, handwritten and autographed by the saintly Rogatchover, Rabbi Yosef Ruzhin, discusses the halachic issues of
pas akum.
Based on the contents of the letter, the recipient had apparently posed a question regarding
pas akum, yet the Rogatchover responds that he does not wish to answer the question directly. Instead, he segues into a different, but related topic. His genius and broad scope of knowledge is manifest from this letter, as is also evident from nearly all known letters he wrote. In this letter specifically, he cites twelve (!) different places throughout Shas that refer to his point.
Rabbi Yosef Rosen of Dvinsk (1858-1936), renowned as the Rogatchover Gaon, was acclaimed as one of the greatest geniuses of his generation whose broad scope and remarkable depth of Torah were virtually unparalleled. Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin praised him as “A treasure-trove of wisdom like one of the Rishonim.” His astounding brilliance and razor-sharp chiddushim, evident from the many letters and teshuvos he authored, were compiled into the series Tzafnas Paneach al HaRambam and Shu”t Tzafnas Paneach.
His son-in-law Rabbi Abba Dovid Goldfein, extolled his father-in-law’s piety with the following description: “My father-in-law was detached from the following three; eating, drinking and sleeping. He washed his hands for a meal only on Shabbos, and during the week sustained himself with several grapes alone. The same was with drinking. He would drink little, and he never lay on a bed to sleep, dozing just a bit… All this in order to avoid squandering even one moment of learning.”
Dvinsk, 1934. Page size: 17×11 cm. Good condition.
This letter was printed in Shu”t Tzafnas Paneach Vol. 3 Ch. 111.
