Letters and a Halachic Response by Rabbi Aharon Shaul Zelig HaCohen Av Beit Din of Dunnaburg (Dvinsk)

Letters and a Halachic Response by Rabbi Aharon Shaul Zelig HaCohen Av Beit Din of Dunnaburg (Dvinsk)
Letter of a Beit Din adjucation, testimony of divorce. Signed by the rabbi of the city, Rabbi "Avraham ben Rabbi Yehoshua Av Beit Din of Sol" and the members of his Beit Din Rabbi "Yechezkel ben Rabbi Moshe" and Rabbi "Yehuda Yehoshua ben Rabbi Moshe Segal". Sol (village near Smarhoń, Vilna district), 1876.
On the leaf margins is another letter, handwritten and signed by Rabbi "Shaul Zelig HaCohen of Dunnaburg [Latvia; later Dvinsk]. The writer asked a question of the Ga'avad of Smarhoń [Rabbi Avraham Chaim Shapira], who responded by post, that the divorce had been performed in the Sol community near his own community, "and with his approval of all the matters of the get… and his handwriting and the signature of Rabbi E. Chaim of the Smarhoń community whom I know well…". Further in the letter, he briefly discusses the halacha of the credibility of testimony which arrives in a letter sent by post and ends that he "writes all these things which I know, to be guarded by the abovementioned woman. And when she will actually wish to marry, it should be further researched".
Rabbi Aharon Shaul Zelig HaCohen Gurion Meirov (1813-1879) was a well-known Torah scholar in his times and one of the greatest in Lithuania. Son of Rabbi Meir Shalom HaCohen Gurion and disciple of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin and Av Beit Din of Karelitz, he was known from his youth as a Torah genius. At the age of 4 [!], he had already begun to study the Talmud and at 18 was appointed head of a yeshiva in Minsk, a position he held for 24 years. Afterward, he served as Av Beit Din of Bryansk and Pruzhany [which earned him the nickname "the Pruzhaner" by which he was known in Torah circles]. From c. 1880, he served as Av Beit Din of Dunnaburg-Dvinsk (succeeding the well-known Torah scholar Rabbi Leib Zolkind Batlan). He corresponded on halachic matters with Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan and with other Lithuania Torah leaders and his responses were printed in their books (see Be’er Yitzchak responsa, Yoreh Deah Siman 26-28; Rashei Besamim responsa, to his brother Rabbi Moshe Yoel HaCohen Gurion Av Beit Din of Anykščiai; Be’er Moshe responsa to his disciple Rabbi Moshe Danishivsky; Mishkan Bezalel responsa, by Rabbi Yehoshua Bezalel Av Beit Din of Malsch, etc.). Some of his responsa were printed in the Teshuvot LaShoel books (Kovno-Vilna, 1928-1929) and bits of his novellae were printed in the book Magen Shaul (Jerusalem, 1954).
Leaf, 20.5 cm. Fair condition, worm damages to the text and stains. Pencil scribbles on verso.