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Rare strongly worded leaflet by the Sefat Emet (R. Judah Aryeh Leib Alter) and Slonimer Rebbe (R. Abraham of Slonim) on the prohibition of reading secular newspaper and books. The leaflet is in two parts, the top the strongly worded proscription on such material by the Sefat Emet and below a comparable interdiction from the Slonimer Rebbe. The Sefat Emet writes that the kofrim (unbelievers) offend all that is holy and insult the angels of the Lord. It is written in the Torah and in numerous works that they incite and instigate with their defiled books. He does not come to judge those arrogant sinners but those what they defile with their unclean works. The Sefat Emet therefore calls on his brothers, his flesh, the children of Israel, seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who gone through for the Torah should desist from reading works full of sacrilege and heresy. The Slonimer, writing in a similar vein, warns against defiling one’s mouth with such material.
R. Judah Aryeh Leib (1847–1905) ben Abraham Mordecai was orphaned as a child and brought up and educated largely by his grandfather. In 1870, after the death of R. Ḥanokh of Aleksandrow, the successor of R. Isaac Meir as Gur rabbi, R. Judah Aryeh Leib became the head (admor) of Gur. In this position he wielded a wide influence and established the leadership of Gur Hasidism in Congress Poland. A distinguished scholar, modest in behavior, Judah Aryeh Leib won the confidence of rabbis and communal leaders throughout Jewry. Like his grandfather he also played a role in public affairs, concerning himself with contemporary Polish Jewish problems. Through his influence Hasidism in Poland dissociated itself from Zionism. Judah Aryeh Leib devoted much energy promoting Torah study and attracted many of the youth. His writings are collected under the title Sefat Emet (2 vols., 1905–08), after which he is also known. The five sections on the Pentateuch include addresses on Sabbaths and festivals, distinguished by the profundity of their ideas and clarity of exposition, and reflect the marked influence of Judah Loew b. Bezalel (the Maharal) of Prague. The sections on the Talmud, on tractates Mo'ed and Kiddushin, evidence his wide Jewish scholarship and ability to penetrate to the intended meaning and provide a lucid exposition of the problem, in contrast to the dialectical pilpul method followed by his grandfather.
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