Bidspirit auction | RUCH, YEHOSHUA ZELIG (Rosh Yeshiva

RUCH, YEHOSHUA ZELIG (Rosh Yeshiva Lomza, 1879-1941). Autograph Letter Signed, written in Hebrew on letterhead to R. Reuven Katz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Lomza branch in Petach Tikva. Concerns coordination between R. Katz and R. Yechiel Michel Gordon over assistance provided to a party in extreme distress; also the Yeshiva’s financial situation involving the support of R. Yisrael Zissel Dvoretz (mentioned on the second-to-last line of the first page). Two full pages. Lomza, Erev Shabbos Parshash Veyechi, 1935. Founded by R. Eliezer Ben-Zion Shulevitz in 1883, the Lithuanian-style Lomza Yeshivah was located deep in Chassidic Poland. After R. Shulevitz moved to set up a branch of the Yeshiva in Eretz Israel, he appointed his two-sons-in-law as joint Rosh Yeshiva in Poland: The outstanding Slabodker Talmidei Chachamim, R. Yechiel Mordechai Gordon and R. Yehoshua Zelig Ruch. In his younger years R. Yehoshua Zelig was one of the ‘agents’ sent by the Alter of Slabodka to infuse other Yeshivos with Mussar. Upon the onslaught of Europe by Nazi hordes, R. Yehoshua Zelig refused to leave behind his students and was murdered in Vilna. R. Yisrael Zissel Dvoretz (1885-1968) was an aide to R. Nosson Zvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka, especially with efforts to develop the nascent Yeshiva in Chevron. He was also instrumental in the establishment of a number of other Yeshivos in Eretz Israel, including Tel Aviv’s Heichal HaTalmud, Petach Tikva’s Ohr Yisrael and the Shomrei Torah network. When R. Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn visited Eretz Israel, it was Dvoretz who acquired the permission for the Rebbe to enter the usually restricted Ma’arath HaMachpelah.