Bidspirit auction | An Important Letter from R.

An Important Letter from R. Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa to R. Akiva Eiger – Entirely Unpublished, Lissa 1824 - An important letter from R. Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa, written to R. Akiva Eiger, regarding his decision to resign from his position as Rav of Lissa. This is a copy of the original letter written to R. Akiva Eiger, as stated at the header of the page: “Copy of the letter by the Gaon of our Kehillah to the Gaon of Posen”.  In this letter, which remains unpublished till this day, the Nesivos writes to R. Akiva Eiger and details the reasoning behind his resignation from the Rabbinate of Lissa. In 1822, he had left Lissa for a short period, with an arrangement with the Parnasim that his salary be paid in full after his return. In the interim, there were some powerful individuals from within the community who opposed his position as Rav, and upon his return, they tried to prevent him from retaining his position. In this letter from 1824, he had been asked once again by the Parnasim to return as Rav, and was sent a Ksav Rabanus. However, the Nesvios believed that this was probably never their true intention, since apparently they had backed out from their earlier decision regarding his salary. It was in this context that this letter was written to R. Akiva Eiger, and asks to try and see if he can glean some insight into their response and ultimately reveal their true intentions. He concludes that he will abide by the decision of R. Akiva Eiger in any matter regarding the Rabbanus.  Although this is a copy of the original letter, nonetheless it remains the only known source for this important historical letter, which provides the much-needed context surrounding the Nesivos, and his true perspective on the Rabbinate of Lissa. The Yeshiva University Library holds an archive of 14 letters of correspondence between the Nesivos and R. Akiva Eiger, however this one is not found there. R. Yaakov Lorberbaum (1760-1832), most commonly known as “The Nesivos” after his work on Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat, entitled Nesivos Hamishpat. He was widely recognized as one of the great Torah scholars in his generation. In his youth, he studied under R. Meshulam Igra. In 1809, he agreed to become the Rav in Lissa where he ran a Yeshiva and raised many students. Among those were R. Elya Gutmacher and R. Zvi Hirsch Kalischer. Along with R. Akiva Eiger and the Chasam Sofer, he vehemently fought against the maskilim, the reformers of the Jewish Enlightenment. Some years later, he left Lissa for Kalish, where he authored many of his works. He died in 1832 in the city of Stryj, Galicia. Due to the uniqueness of this letter, the original text has been partially obscured. [1] handwritten leaf. In good condition. 19.5cm.