View Auction Listing - The True Facts of the Dispute

04:02:19

			[Login] [Book List]

Bidding Information
Lot #		19002
Auction End Date		10/9/2007 11:13:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

The True Facts of the Dispute

Title (Hebrew)

דברים כמו שהם

Author

R. Hayyim Berlin, R. Samuel Salant

City

Jerusalem - Aleppo

Publication Date

1909

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

Only edition. sheet 290:230 mm., usual age staining, creased with tears.

Detailed
Description

Public letter to the diaspora informing them as to the true events published under the names of R. Hayyim Berlin and R. Samuel Salant. It is mistakenly believed abroad that the dispute is simply between the Haredim and the kofrim. This is not, in fact, the case, but the dispute is an old grievance between two groups over the election, both including prominent rabbis who besmirch the other side without concern for the pain caused abroad. Both sides previously fought together against other rabbis in favor of one rav. Having won, they now split, one side wanting this rav, the others now wanting another rav. The flyer mentions R. Hezekiah Shabbtai Haham Bashi of Aram Zova (Aleppo) as a mediator. In addition to the names of R. Berlin and R. Salant the names of thirty-nine leading rabbis appear as signatories to this protest. ,p> R. Hayyim Berlin (1832–1912) was a Lithuanian rabbi, eldest son of R. Naphtali Zevi Judah Berlin, head of the yeshivah at Volozhin for some 40 years. Hayyim Berlin received his education from his father and became conversant with all aspects of rabbinic literature as well as being well versed in Jewish subjects. At the age of seventeen he married into the wealthy Zeitlin family of Shklov (see Zeitlin, Joshua), and later used part of his wealth to amass an excellent library which was acquired by the Yeshivat Ez Hayyim of Jerusalem after his death. In 1865 R. Berlin became the rabbi of Moscow. In 1889 he returned to Volozhin at the request of his aged father, who wanted his son to succeed him as head of the yeshivah. However, he was opposed by many of the Volozhin yeshivah students, who favored the election of his niece's husband, R. Hayyim Soloveichik, who was renowned for his unique analytical approach to talmudic study. The controversy soon ended with the forced closing of the school by the Russian government on January 22, 1892. With the closing of the yeshivah, R. Berlin became the rabbi of Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd), where he remained until 1906, when he settled in Jerusalem. His erudition, family heritage, and patriarchal appearance gained for him a leading role on the Jerusalem scene, and in 1909 he was elected to succeed R. Samuel Salant as chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem. R. Meir Bar-Ilan (Berlin), who was nearly 50 years his junior, was his half-brother. R. Samuel Salant (1816–1909) was chief rabbi of Jerusalem and one of the foremost 19th-century rabbis in Jerusalem. Born near Bialystok (Russia, now Poland), Salant studied at yeshivot in Vilna, Salant, and Volozhin. His second wife was the daughter of Joseph Sundel Salant, who inspired the Musar movement, and he continued studying at his father-in-law's house. He set out for Erez Israel in 1840, but was delayed for a few months in Constantinople, where he first met Sir Moses Montefiore, with whom he established a firm friendship. In 1841 he reached Jerusalem, where the heads of the kolel Lita appointed him rabbi of the Ashkenazi community. A leading figure in Jerusalem, he became Ashkenazi chief rabbi in 1878, holding the position until his death. Salant strove to develop the institutions of the Ashkenazi community, which increased from 500 members at his arrival to 30,000 at the time of his death, and succeeded in obtaining for the Ashkenazim the official status previously enjoyed only by the Sephardi community. Between 1848 and 1851 and in 1860 he traveled to several European countries to collect money for religious institutions in Jerusalem. R. Salant was a founder of the Ez Hayyim Talmud Torah and Yeshivah, the Bikkur Holim Hospital, and the Keneset Israel General Committee, which united all the kolelim under a single administration. He also encouraged the establishment of the Jewish quarters, such as Me'ah She'arim, Keneset Israel, and others, outside the Old City walls. R. Salant's attitude to the Haskalah movement and Zionism was moderate. He favored the introduction of Hebrew and Arabic into the curriculum of the Talmud Torah schools and opposed the excommunications pronounced by zealots on "modernists." He also tried to lessen the friction between the veteran settlement and the new yishuv, combated the activities of the mission schools and ameliorated the relations between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities. R. Salant lived an exemplary life of the utmost frugality. He devoted himself without stint to the needs of his community, even in the last years of his long life when his eyesight was affected. In his method of study he tended toward the plain meaning, eschewing pilpul, and followed the minhag of R. Elijah b. Solomon Zalman, the Gaon of Vilna. He was an outstanding posek, distinguishing himself by his power of decision, and showed a definite tendency toward leniency in his decisions.

Paragraph 2

קולות באים אלינו מאחינו היראים שבגולה ...

גלוי דעת בדבר "מחלוקת על דבר הרבנות הספרדית בעה"ק ירושלם". הכותבים מודיעים כי בשני הצדדים "אנו מוצאים גדולי תורה יראי ה'", אך גם אחרים בעלי-מחלוקת. הדבר אינו נוגע לעדה האשכנזית, שאינה נתונה לפיקוחו של הרב הראשי (ה"חכם באשי"). מודיעים כי ר' חזקיה שבתי בא מארם צובה לירושלים, למלא מקומו של החכם באשי, ויש תקוה שבכך תסתיים המחלוקת. חותמים רבנים וראשי הכוללים בירושלים, עם אישור מאת ר' שמואל סלאנט ור' חיים ברלין. המחלוקת היתה בין המצדדים ברב יעקב מאיר והמתנגדים לו.

Reference
Description

EJ; CD-EPI 0331006

Associated Images

2 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):

Order	Image	Caption
1

2

Listing Classification

Period

20th Century:

Checked

Location

Israel:		Checked
Other:		Syria

Subject

Polemics:

Checked

Characteristic

First Editions:		Checked
Language:		Hebrew

Manuscript Type

Kind of Judaica

Posters:

Checked