“The publication of this volume makes it evident to all that its author was not only a brilliant exponent of the Mussar movement, but was equally outstanding in the exposition of intricate Talmudical laws and problems,” Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel, head of Yeshiva “Hevrat Ahavat Shalom” of Jerusalem writes in his introduction to Hiddushei HaGra’a al HaShaas (Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler’s Novellae on the Talmud).
Rabbi E.E. Dessler was literally, brought up in the Mussar Movement. His father Reuven Dov studied with Rabbi Simha Zissel Ziv, a prominent disciple of Rabbi Israel of Salant. Rabbi Reuven Dov was a rich merchant and a patron of Torah and Mussar; he personally gave Mussar Shmuesen (Rabbi Dov Kaz writes about him at length in his Tenuat HaMussar.) Rabbi E. E. Dessler’s mother was a granddaughter of Rabbi Israel of Salant!
Born in Libau, Latvia in 1892, Rabbi E.E. Dessler studied for many years at the Kelm Talmud Torah” with Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Brauda and Rabbi Nahum Zeev Ziv, son-in-law and son respectively of Rabbi Simha Zissel Ziv. After World War I he married the daughter of Rabbi Nahum Zeev Ziv. He tried his hand at business in Riga, but did not succeed. Leaving the continent, he spent some time in the U.S. and in 1927 arrived in London.
He was chosen rabbi of a small Shul in the East End. Later he became rabbi of a synagogue in North-East London and director of a Talmud Torah. However his spiritually most rewarding work was the private tutoring of select students.
In 1941 he was invited to help establish a Kollel in Gateshead. He accepted the call. For seven years he served as the unsalaried administrator of the Kollel, helped raise funds for its maintenance and gave Mussar talks to its students, while continuing his private tutoring from which he derived his income. He also gave lectures on Mussar to groups in various cities. The Gateshead Kollel produced rabbis, who held leading posts in Jewish communities. It also spurred the development of the local Yeshiva into a well-known center of Torah. Rabbi Dessler also helped establish additional religious educational institutions in that city.
in 1948 the late Rabbi Yosef Kahaneman asked Rabbi Dessler to become Mashgiach Ruchani at the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Dessler accepted the offer and served as Mashgiach of the Yeshiva- giving Mussar talks to the students at least three times a week – until his death at the end of 1953. During this period he also lectured at other places such as the Beth HaMussar in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Dessler’s talks, which unlike those of other leaders employed also ideas from the world of Hasidism, influenced and inspired many. He made an indelible impression on all who met and heard him.
He was a very modest man. This writer remembers well Rabbi Dessler’s self -effacing demeanor from the latter’s occasional visits to the Etz Hayyim Yeshiva in London.
Three volumes of Mikhtav M’eliyahu, selections from his writings, were published after Rabbi Dessler’s death. Part of these also appeared in English under the title Strive for Truth! (3 vols. Feldheim), translated by Rabbi Aryeh Carmel, a close constituent of Rabbi Dessler and noted writer and scholar. Rabbi Carmel was one of the editors of Mikhtav MeEliyahu and also wrote a fine biographical sketch of the revered master.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday , December 18, 1992 p. 24
The bulk of the recently published volume of Rabbi E.E. Dessler’s novellae on the Talmud consists of notes of Rabbi Dessler’s Shiurim taken by the late Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon – a scion of the India Sassoons the Rothschilds of the East– who was a fine Torah scholar and a famous bibliophile and collector of Hebrew manuscripts. David S. Sassoon’s mother was the illustrious Flora Sassoon, who was very erudite in religious Jewish literature.
Flora Sassoon and her family settled in London in the beginning of this century. It was there in 1915 that her grandson, the late Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon was born. David S Sassoon did not want to send his son to non-Jewish schools but had him tutored home. When Solomon D. Sassoon was 14 years old, his father engaged Rabbi Dessler – at the recommendation of Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman, the Dayan of the London Beth Din — as private teacher. Rabbi Dessler taught Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon for many years, completing with him the study of the entire Talmud. Rabbi Solomon D. Sasson also participated in the regular Shiuim Rabbi Dessler gave to a select group of students. (The notes on which the new book is based were taken at these Shiurim).
Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel of Yeshiva “Hevrat Ahavat Shalom” under whose auspices the volume has been published, observes correctly in his above cited introduction that the notes taken of the shiurim reflect not only the greatness in Torah of their author, but also the proficiency of his young disciple.
Rabbi Solomon D Sassoon was indeed very talented. Rabbi Dessler used to speak in praise of him. He was ordained by Rabbi Dessler, Rabbi I Herzog and Rabbi Shem Tov Gagin, the Ave Beth Din of England’s Sefardim. (Rabbi Gagin published the Semikha he gave Solomon D. Sassoon in his book Pirkei Shira, 1937) R. Solomon D. Sassoon devoted himself to Jewish scholarship and communal service. He published rabbinic manuscripts from his father’s library, attacked Bible criticism, wrote in the defense of Shehita, and authored Divrei Torah, historical essays an philosophic reflections. He helped the Jews of India who settled in London to organize their own community. Following the death of Isaac Shalom (1968) he became one of the leaders of Ozar HaTorah and traveled widely on behalf of that organization. The writer of these lines interviewed Rabb S. Sassoon for this column during the latter’s short visit to New York.
Rabbi Solomon D.Sasson, who had settled in Israel in 1970, died in 1985. Several years after his death a collection of his studies and articles, in English and in Hebrew, was published under the title, Natan Hohma Lishlomo. The volume also contains two biographical essays on Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon; one in English and the other in Hebrew. The latter was written by Rabbi C. David Kaplin of the London Beth Din.
Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon’s notes of Rabbi Dessler’s Shiurim were discovered some time ago in the Sassoon library. Rabbi David S. Sassoon, Rabbi D. Solomon’s son published them last summer on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Rachel.
Rabbi E. E. Dessler’s novellae in the volume before us are of various kinds. They include notes on many Sugyot, elucidating views of Rishonim and Aharonim on the subjects; exegetical observations on Aharonim on the subjects,; exegetical observations on individual passages to the Talmud and comments by Posekim and Mefarshim; resolutions of difficult Rambams and Hiddushim on the Kzot HaHoshen .All novellae testify to the extraordinary erudition of the author and to his incisive reasoning.
In addition to Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel’s introduction, the volume also carries a foreword by David Sassoon and introductory remarks by Rabbi Shemuel Barukh Deutsch who prepared the manuscript for print, as well as letters by Rabbi Elezar Menahem M. Shach and Rabbi Dessler’s son, Rabbi Nahum Zeev.
Rabbi Shach in his letter welcomes the publication of Rabbi Dessler’s novellae which would reveal to all the latter’s eminence in Torah. Rabbi Dessler’s son relates that in his youth he visited his granduncle, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodenski in Vilna and told his some of his father’s Hiddushim on Hilkhot Me’ilah. Rabbi Chaim Ozer was deeply impressed and wrote his father to published them. Rabbi Dessler, in his great modesty, wouldn’t do so! All his life he endeavored to conceal from people his true stature in Torah!
The Jewish Press, Friday, December 25, 1992