Manuscript: Responsa on Orach Chaim, Yoreh Deah and Choshen Mishpat. By Rabbi Mordechai Neta Margolin, Av Beit Din of Snovsk (Russia, Chernihiv district). With a letter of approbation handwritten and signed by Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz, Av Beit Din of Minsk, Tamuz 1923.
A complete work arranged for print, by Rabbi Mordechai Neta Margolin, an outstanding Torah scholar and a Chabad Chassid. He served as Torah authority and Rabbi of the city of Snovsk for more than 40 years. Already in 1882, he received a response from the Netziv of Volozhin (Meshiv Davar responsa, Part 2 Siman 63). The manuscript includes several responsa, written to Rabbi Chaim Eliezer HaCohen Bichovsky [a Chabad Chassid who lived in Snovsk and later moved to Jerusalem. There, in 1924, he published the book Ginzei Nistarot, derived from the treasures of the Cherson Geniza].
The responsa includes a responsum addressed to "The Gaon, the Tzaddik, author of the Chafetz Chaim, at the time he resided in Snovsk" [The Chafetz Chaim arrived in Snovsk with his family and his Yeshiva at the end of World War I, during the winter of 1920. Snovsk was their last refuge during the war before they could return to Radin], and a responsa concerning halachic queries of "Rabbi Eliezer [Kaplan], son-in-law of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch [Levinson], son-in-law of the Chafetz Chaim". Among other things, he mentions matters shown to him by "My friend, very clever and great in Torah and fear of Heaven Rabbi Naftali [Trop], teacher in the Yeshiva of the Chafetz Chaim".
The approbation was written by the renowned Torah scholar Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz (1859-1924), who in his youth was known as the "Genius of Kiev" and studied in Slutzk from the author of Beit HaLevi and in the Volozhin Yeshiva. He was a son-in-law of Rabbi Yerucham Leib "The Great Rabbi of Minsk", author of Or Gadol and his successor in the Minsk rabbinate. He was known as one of the most prominent Lithuanian rabbis and he too was dubbed the "Great Rabbi of Minsk". After the eruption of the communist revolution in 1917, the rabbi was jailed in a Russian prison and released after some time but this did not dampen his spirit and he continued leading his community just as before, in spite of the government's persecution. The remnants of his Torah novellae were covertly smuggled from Russia and printed in the book Mishnat Eliezer (Jerusalem, 1962). This is a rare letter written at that time, in the last half year of his life.
2-55 leaves, 21.5 cm. Fair condition, wear, dirt stains and fungus damage. Sewn notebook, unbound + a glued letter of approbation, 21 cm. Very good condition.