VaYelaket Yosef, a rabbinic fortnightly, appeared in Bonyhad, Hungary for 20 years, from 1898-1917.
The journal’s publisher and editor was Rabbi Yosef HaKohen Schwartz, a son of Rabbi Naftali HaKohen Schwartz. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Eliezer Chaim Deutsch, who was the rabbi of Bonyhad, and after the death of his father-in-law succeeded him as rabbi of that town. In 1924, Rabbi Yosef HaKohen Schwartz was chosen rabbi of the Mahzikei Torah Congregation of Grosswardein (Oradea). His published writings include Vayitzbor Yosef and Ginzei Yosef (responsa). He was killed in the Holocaust.
Several years ago, Rabbi Eliezer Ehrenreich, who after World War II, established in New York the “Kol Aryeh Insititute ” for the perpetuation and dissemination of the spiritual legacy of Rabbi Avraham Yehuda HaKohen Schwartz, author of Kol Aryeh, and his descendants, embarked on the reprinting of VaYelaket Yosef.
A short time ago, the eighth volume of the reprint came off the press. Like the preceding volumes it contains the issus of two years, embracing the issues which appeared from Tishri 5613 (1912) until Ellul 5764 (1914).
The periodical featured Chiddushei Torah, Halakhic questions and decisions, Divrei Aggadah, news from the Torah world, including obituaries of rabbis and announcements of new Sefarim.
Contributing to VaYelaket Yosef were not only rabbis, who resided in Austria-Hungary and in other European countries, but also rabbis from Palestine and the U.S.
As we are approaching the festival of Chanukah we permit ourselves to mention here a note by a contributor from the U.S. The question has been asked, why Rabbi Ahai discusses the laws of Chanukah in his She’iltot in the Parasha of Vayishlach. Chanukah never occurs in the weeks in which Vayishlach is read. Rabbi Moshe Shimeon Sivitz suggested that Rabbi Ahai placed the laws of Chanukah in Parashat Vayishlach so that rabbis speak of these laws some time before Chanukah. (See Bach in the beginning of laws of Passover).
Rabbi M.S. Sivitz was a Lithuanian rabbi. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1886 and from 1888 until his death in 1936, served as head of the orthodox rabbinate of Pittsburgh. In 1965, Shem MiShime’on, a volume in his memory was published in Pittsburgh. It features a biography of Rabbi Sivitz written by the late Rabbi David Leiter, a son of Rabbi Zeev Wolf Leiter. Rabbi Sivitz was the author of many books, including studies in the Jerusalem Talmud, which were praised by Gedolei Yisrael.
Rabbi Benjamin Gittelson of Cleveland was another U.S. rabbi who was a regular contributor to VaYelaket Yosef. In one of his articles in the recently reprinted volume, he relates an interesting but little-known story about Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, which he heard back in Russia from a Gadol.
Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin had a daughter named Chassa who resided in Lida. The father and daughter exchanged letters by means of a carriage driver who brought goods from Lida. One day Rabbi Chaim told his son Rabbi Yitzchok to go to the carriage driver , get back the letter, which he – Rabbi Chaim- had given him, and give him another one instead.
When Rabbi Yitzchok returned informing his father that he couldn’t carry out his request, because the driver had already left for Lida, Rabbi Chaim asked him to get hold of a man on a horse who could follow the carriage, catch up with it and replace the letter.
Curious to know why his father was in such a hurry to replace it, Rabbi Yitzhak read the letter. Later, after the rider had returned to him the first letter, he read this one too. There seemed to be no difference between the two letters.
“You didn’t read the letters with enough care,” Rabbi Chaim told his son. He explained to him that in the first letter the name Chassa was not spelled the right way. “I feared that there could be a case of a divorce in Lidda, in which the wife’s name is Chassa, and members of the local Beth Din might enquire of my daughter how I spell her name and ask her to show letters I had written to her. I didn’t want them to be misled by the wrong spelling in the first letter, for this reason I was eager to replace it,” Rabbi Chaim said.
Some time later, Rabbi Chaim’s daughter visited the family. She told her father that the Beth Din in her town had arranged a divorce. The members of the Beth Din came to her house and wanted to see letters her father had written to her. She didn’t know why they asked for them.
When Rabbi Chaim heard this, he called in his son and said to him. “Listen what she is telling us, You can learn from this how careful a person must be, even when writing a private letter, to avoid misleading others.”
(Continued next week)