Translated by Adam Prager
We held a session as a rabbinical court with three judges and we were as one. We
declared a ban in the synagogue, proclaiming that whosoever knew or heard of an
engagement [kidushin] of the aforesaid Rakhel Bat Khayim should come and inform
us and if he did not he would bear the sin for not doing so. And we sent the
sexton from house to house to inquire if anyone had heard of such an enagement,
since a ban had been proclaimed in the synagogue. But no one came forward to
make a declaration, neither man nor woman, married or unmarried, came to give
evidence. And we wrote and signed that here in the holy congregation of Biczacz,
this day Wednesday the second day of Sivan 1572, we are witnesses that what was
done was done. Yitskhak, son of Aharon David (of blessed memory); and head of
the congregation [? ve-rak], the cantor of Biczacz Avraham son of Barukh (of
blessed memory); Perets, the son of the reverend [khaver] Shlomo HaLevi (of
blessed memory) Luri"a. The witnesses signed the aforementioned document before
me with their own hand and I supervised the signing in the proper manner. Yuda
[either Yehuda spelled to avoid tetragrammaton or influence of Yiddish Yude] Bar
Binyamin z"l. Copied letter for letter in the body of the document.
(Responsa of Rash"l R' Shlomo Luria, Responsum 101. S. Y. Agnon told me that
Avraham Khayim Freiman (May God avenge his blood) brought this source to his
attention. Ed.)
*
"The holy Gaon R' Avraham David, head of the rabbinical court of the sacred
congregation of Buczacz wanted badly to see a copy of Sefer Khemdat Yamim
[authorship unknown; see Yaari]. He heard that a householder in the town owned
one. He sent someone to ask to borrow it. When the book was brought to him, he
was engrossed in study and his table was full of books so that there was no
clear space on which to set it down. He would not place the book on the books he
was studying from and stood up in order to lay it on his bench; however, he
remained standing by the bench and did not sit down until he finished looking
through Sefer Khemdat Yamim.
(from Book, Author and Story, 2nd ed., section 14, cited in Avraham Yaari,
Taalumat Sefer, Jerusalem, 1954.
*
Your name will be remembered with love, my dear and exalted Gedalia, son of the
holy Rabbi Avraham (May the Lord watch over him and restore him). Behold, most
esteemed one, in the matter of the engagement [kidushin] report concerning the
young woman Blume, your daughter (may she live). I looked into the matter in the
rabbinical court of the sacred congregation of Buczacz and found that the report
was baseless, since both the young man and the young woman deny there was an
engagement [kidushin]. In every such situation everyone agrees that the report
is meaningless. Nothing is clear except a vague report which is insignificant
and we have no anxieties about an engagement.
(From the appeal of Binyomin to R' Binyomin Aharon (Solnik), head of the
rabbinical court of the sacred congregation of Podheyts, Mits, 1779, Responsum
88) [Forwarded from A. Y. Agnon]
*
To Our Master, Rabbi of all Israel, Delight of Our Era, Joy of Our Strength,
Glory of Our Generation, Holy Seed Whom the House of Israel Glories In and
Depends Upon, Servant of God, Holy Oracle, Most Holy Teacher, May his light
shine. We needed an additional ritual slaughterer [shokhet] here in our
congregation and there was a candidate for the post, A., in our area. The
distinguished late head of the rabbinical court of Buczacz certified his
qualifications. Our own illustrious rabbi thought to appoint him, for he had
seen him use his knife and saw how swift he was both in slaughtering and in
inspecting. But since the veteran learned Shimshon (May his light shine), son of
the righteous rabbi of blessed memory of the holy congregation of Zabriz,
intervened, his position was weakened. He then appealed to the local holy rabbi
even though the presumption of his qualifications had not been invalidated
according to our religion.
(Yosef Perl, Megale Tmirin, chapter 105. [This is an anti-hasidic satire.]
*
"This is the letter regarding his views about the Baal Shem Tov that Rabbi
Rapoport wrote to his relatives in Buczacz. The letter lacks a date and at the
head appears this addition by the misnaged Yisrael Leybl:
A letter from the honorable rabbi, gaon, illustrious paragon of his generation,
and from his son, the great R' Shmuel Katz.
I hear that you intend to turn to the idolatrous physician that calls himself
the Baal Shem. Never, never! He is awful and there is nothing to him. You would
be throwing your money into the trashcan. It is impossible to put on paper the
extent of his deceits, for he does no good, but only evil. Thus I advise you to
turn from this path and God will be with you and will send you a complete cure
if you will be innocent and do not turn to this idolatrous physician. Enough
said, and may they not multiply in Israel.
Khayim Kohen Rapoport
Leybl was probably worried that people might question the authenticity of the
letter and so added this remark:
We felt it necessary to state that the above letter was copied from the
original, which is in the possession of one of our relatives in Buczacz. We
still have relatives there from this important family. And we are completely
confident of this great man, and if any evildoer so much as questions the
authenticity of this letter and its writer, then he would show them the original
letter and they would be convinced.
“When I first started writing this book in the sacred community of Buczacz
situated in the district of Galicia, I was filled with great passion and
enthusiasm and thus wrote quickly and intensively day and night. I would stay
awake into the night until my eyes were too week to continue and could not see
anymore. Eventually I became ill and my eyes ailed me greatly forcing me to
spend all winter with treatments as all the citizens of Buczacz know.”
(Sefer HaBrit by R' Pinkhas Eliyahu of Vilna. Brin 1797. With a forward of one
page.)
(cited in Prof. M. Balaban's History of the Frankist Movement, p. 308)
