Teshuvoth Ohr Chadash [“Responsa on the Electric Light, Tramways, Automobiles, Telephones, Phonographs & Gramophones.”]

<<An early, thorough attempt to tackle Halachic questions brought on by modern inventions.>> Complete abstinence from electric appliances for the duration of the Sabbath and festivals is perhaps the most widely-known fact about Orthodox Jews today. However, when invented over a hundred years ago, novelties such as cars and telephones challenged traditional Jews as how to fit such technology within the Halachic framework, definitively allowing or prohibiting their use on a holy day. Among the early authorities to address such issues was R. Ephraim Zalman Slutsky (1842-1915?) of Mir, a Dayan in Vilna. In the present volume, over the course of four lengthy Teshuvoth, R. Slutzky addresses whether electric lights may be used for Sabbath Havdalah; if one may ride a train or car on Yom Tov; if one may use a telephone on Yom Tov; and if one may turn electric lights on and off over Yom Tov. Despite R. Slutzky’s work, many rabbis still did not reach a consensus regarding these topics. Only with R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s hugely influential ‘Me’orei Ha’esh’ (Jerusalem, 1935) did the Ashkenazic rabbinic community coalesce around mostly agreed-upon principles. <<Thus, the present work offers a fascinating early, maverick approach, whose conclusions do not precisely mirror today’s presumptions.>> Rabbi Slutzky published books on a broad array of rabbinic topics: Mishnah, on the Talmudic dictionary Aruch, on the Halachot Gedolot, on the halachic decisions of the Tosafot, and more. <<ATTACHED:>> Autographed Letter Signed by Ephraim Zalman Halevi Slutzky on official letterhead, with stamp. A recommendation for American immigrant Ya’akov Stolson that he serve as a prayer leader in New York, just as he had in Vilna. Slutzky’s book is attached with the letter as a gift to the recipient.