(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

<<A most interesting Collection. Should be seen.>> A miscellaneous selection: Of extreme interest to Torah scholars is an halachic letter of R. Mordecai Leib Rubin of Ekron to R. Samuel Salant of Jerusalem, dated 1907, discussing the permissibility of redeeming tithes (Ma’aser Sheni) worth less than a perutah (“penny”). This issue would be raised once again in 1934 with the arrival of the “Chazon Ish,” R. Abraham Isaiah Karelitz, in B’nei Berak from Vilna. At that time, the Chazon Ish directed his query to Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook of Jerusalem. The correspondence between the latter two may be found in Igroth la-RAYaH (1990), pp. 448-9, 591, and She’eloth u-Teshuvoth Mishpat Kohen, nos. 53-54, pp. 101-104 (especially p. 103). From Jannina, Greece we have a letter in Hebrew bearing the stamp and signature of Moses Elias Negrin. It is believed that the Negrins of Jannina were descendants of the famed sixteenth-century kabbalist R. Moses Nigrin. I. Yudlov speculates that R. Moses Nigrin himself was from the Jannina (or Epirus) region, for in some of his works he utilizes the Romaniot (native Greek) rite of the prayers. See Y. Satz, Introduction to R. Moses Nigrin, M’lecheth Avodath ha-Kodesh (Lakewood, 1999), p. 7. (See Lot 321 concerning R. Moses Nigrin.) Most intriguing are an internal, confidental communiqué of the “De-Haan Circle” of Po’alei Agudath Israel concerning the late Dr. Jacob Israel De-Haan; a complaint lodged in 1924 against the Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency on account of the contemptuous attitude of its Secretary towards Yemenite Jews aspiring to enter Eretz Israel; and the response of Rabbi J.I. Schneersohn of Lubavitch concerning the infamous “Yaldei Teheran” Affair, as transmitted by hs emissary R. S.L. Eliezrov of Jerusalem. One might be taken aback to learn that R. Aaron Fisher, adviser and confidant to Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld of the Edah Charedith of Jerusalem, insists that Kol Israel of the Agudah print his article only on condition that the honorifics attached to the names of the members of the Chief Rabbinate (one assumes Rabbi Kook, et al) not be erased! A letter by R. Elijah Dweck sets straight for the record the stance of his late father Jerusalem Kabbalist R. Chaim Saul Dweck Hakohen concerning secular education. It is known that the Rebbe of Munkatch held R. Ch. S. Dweck in the highest esteem. See D. Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars (2005), pp. 171-179, nos. 224, 228, 232. On another note, the collection contains two letters from Siberian merchants in Irkutsk and Chita requesting ethrogim from Eretz Israel