A long letter on matters of charity, all in the handwriting of Rabbi Eliezer Yehoshua Epstein of Ozerov from the city of Hamelnik, to the organization Ezrat Torah. Iyar 1939.
A few months before World War II.
In his letter he addresses and requests with pity and great supplications for the members of his community, the Shochtim and the Dayanim and all other heads of households, who are now extremely miserable due to the difficult and terrible situation.
In particular, the deprivation experienced by the rabbi himself is great and difficult, as he is deeply in debt due to personal loans which he took upon himself, trying to revive the members of his home and his congregation.
The holy Rebbe continues and ends his letter with myriad blessings for those who will stand to his right: May the blessed G-d be with you in this world and in the next, to receive the holy Torah and to keep it in holiness and purity and prosperity and contentment.
Rabbi Eliezer Yehoshua HaLevi Epstein of Ozerov Chmelnik [1899-1943] son of Rabbi Avraham Shlomo, and son-in-law of his uncle Rabbi Yitzchak Shlomo Goldberg of Kiltz. He served as Rosh Yeshiva in Kiltz, and as Av Beit Din in Apt, Rakov (from 1926), and Chmelnik. He corresponded extensively in Halacha with the Rogochover (part of the correspondence was printed in the responsa "Tzofnat Pa’ane’ach"), and with many of the famous Gedolim of his generation. In his youth, he was given Semicha by the holy Rebbe, Rabbi Meir Yechiel of Ostrowtza. He was bound to the Tzaddikim of his generation, including the rebbes of Belz and Kamarna, and his name became known as one of the most important rabbis in the country. He responded to the multitudes who inquired of him in Halacha, and occasionally adjudicated together with the renowned holy geniuses Rabbi Menachem Ziemba and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Alter of Pabianitz. Known as a distinct genius, a Chassid, holy and detached from worldly pleasures. When the Jews of Chmelnik were deported to Chanchin, on the 25th of Tishrei 19423, and from there to the Treblinka extermination camp, Rabbi Eliezer Yehoshua walked at the head of the deportees, and together with his congregation was murdered Al Kiddush Hashem, at the age of forty-five (according to ‘Your Torah I have not forgotten’).
[1] Official letterhead. All handwritten. Recipient’s secretarial records. Good – very good condition.
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