Meir Lerner. Chayei Olam [responsa concerning cremation].

Meir Lerner (1857-1930) Chief Rabbi of Altona was a vigorous opponent of the Reform movement, especially their practice to permit cremation in place of traditional full burial. Consequently, Lerner refused to permit the burial of such ashes in a Jewish cemetery. In order to support his position, Lerner gathered responsa from approximately 200 Rabbis from all over the world, running the gamut from Lithuanian authorities such as R. Yechiel Michal Epstein, author of Aruch HaShulchan, to Chassidic Rebbes such as R. Chaim Elazar Shapiro of Munkatch, German Rabbinical scholars such as R. Asher Marx of Darmstadt and from Eretz Israel, The Adereth and the author of the Sdei Chemed. See pp. 111-30 for two vociferous responses to Rabbi Chanoch Ehrentreu’s work Cheker Halacha (see next lot) - one written by Rabbi Elijah Hertzberg of Brooklyn and the other a lengthy rebuttal by Lerner. * Laid In: The original eight pages of responsa published by Lerner in Cracow at the press of Josef Fischer and sent to Rabbis across the globe (apparently unrecorded) and later reprinted in the present volume (pp. xiii-xxiv).