Chofetz Chaim
Blessing for Arichus Yamim
Radin, 1930
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“Hashem should fortify your strengths and lengthen your days and years with goodness and pleasure”
Autographed Letter of Blessing by the Chafetz Chaim to His Talmid. Radin, 1930
This heartwarming letter by the Chofetz Chaim was sent to his beloved talmid Rabbi Yosef Stern of New York who was one of the key patrons of the yeshivah in Radin and assisted the Chofetz Chaim in printing his sefarim.
The Chofetz Chaim added a personal bracha in his handwriting and signed “Yisroel Meir haKohen”
“Hashem should fortify your strengths and lengthen your days and years with goodness and pleasure”
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Hakohein Kagan of Radin (1839-1933), universally renowned as the Chofetz Chaim after his famous sefer, was “Rabban shel Yisrael” in every sense of the word. He was regarded as most brilliant, humble and pious among the Achronim, and there are few sages whose legacy impacts the contemporary Torah world as the Chofetz Chaim, whose landmark sefarim including Mishnah Brurah, Chofetz Chaim and Shemiras Halashon are learned universally by young and old, men, women and even children alike.
Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Levinson Hy”d
The verso of the letter features a personal letter from the Chofetz Chaim’s grandson and right-hand man and administrator of the Radin Yeshivah Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Levinson Hy”d. Rabbi Yehoshua Leib, who was the only son of the Chofetz Chaim’s son-in-law Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Levinson, was a student of the Kelm Yeshivah, a tzaddik with a noble spirit who guarded his tongue meticulously.
Following his father’s passing in 1921, the Chofetz Chaim assigned him to deliver mussar shiurim in the yeshivah and appointed him as the yeshivah’s administrator. During the final decades of the Chofetz Chaim’s life, his grandson served him faithfully and assisted him in every realm and finally delivered a tearful eulogy at the tzaddik’s levayah.
With the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Levinson was exiled along with the talmidim of the yeshiva to Eišiškės, a small city in southeastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus, and later to the Kovno Ghetto. It was here that his spiritual greatness was truly revealed. During these tragic years, he endeavored to lift the spirits of the downtrodden Jews, and he risked his life on numerous occasions to fulfill mitzvos. From Kovno, he was taken to the Dachau extermination camp where he sacrificed his life al kiddush Hashem in the Holocaust inferno. Hashem yikom damo (HaChofetz Chaim U’paalo Vol. 2 pp. 503-509).
Radin, 1930. Chofetz Chaim’s personal stationery. Page Size: 29×22 cm. Condition: Folds and signs of use with all text intact.
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