מכתב בכתב יד וחתימת הגאון אהרן יוסף באקשט אבד"ק שאוול

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מכתב בכתב יד וחתימת הגאון אהרן יוסף באקשט אבד"ק שאוול

מכתב לעזור להגאון רבי שלמה פיאנקא בכתב יד וחתימת הגאון רבי אהררן יוסף באקשט אב"ד שאוול

R. Aharon Yosef Bakst – known as "R. Archik" (1869-1941; perished in the Holocaust), a prominent rabbi in his generation and one of the leaders of the mussar movement. He studied in the Volozhin yeshia, and later in the kibbutz in Slabodka, in the company and under the influence of R. Itzele Blazer. He then went to study in the Beit HaTalmud in Kelm (where he was highly regarded by his teacher, the Alter of Kelm, who qualified him as a "Bar Daat"). He was reputed for his genius and great perception. Together with his fellow mussar leaders in Kovno (R. Itzele Blazer, the Alter of Novardok), he was the target of much slander in the Haskalah press. R. Archik attributes the many offers of rabbinic positions from distant towns to the publicity he received in the press, which eventually worked to his benefit. From 1895, he served as rabbi in various cities in Russia, Lithuania and Poland. He was held in high esteem by the Chafetz Chaim, who would summon him by telegram to Radin to join various rabbinical meetings and consultations. The Chafetz Chaim would don Shabbat clothing whenever R. Archik came to visit him (Lev Aharon, p. 34). He earned the renown of a gifted orator, and his exceptional sermons drew large crowds, attracting young and old alike. During WWI, he moved to Poltava, Ukraine, where the Mir yeshiva, under the leadership of his colleague R. Yerucham of Mir, also found temporary haven. The latter invited him to deliver mussar lectures in the yeshiva during the month of Elul (Pirkei Chaim shel Chalutz Dati, I, pp. 37-38). During that period, he stood at the helm of Orthodox Jewry in Ukraine and was one of the founders of the Achdut movement, a precursor of the worldwide Agudath Yisrael movement. In 1937, he was appointed rabbi of Shavl (Shavli, Šiauliai), where he was murdered together with his community in 1941, following the Nazis' invasion of the town.