KAGAN, ISRAEL MEIR.

Radin

Tishrei, 1929

(“Chafetz Chaim”). Secretarial Letter Signed on letterhead stationery of “Israel Meir Hakohen, author ‘Chafetz Chaim’ and ‘Mishnah Berurah’” (Hebrew); and “Rabin I.M. Kagan, Radun” (Polish). Letter addressed to Rabbi Yoseph Meir Jacobsohn of Roxbury (Mass.) thanking him for a donation. Signed by the Chofetz Chaim, along with his stamp

R. Israel Meir Kagan (1838-1933) was universally acclaimed as the preeminent Halachic decisor and “tzaddik” of his generation. He is referred today as the Chafetz Chaim (“Seeker of Life”), after the title of his guide to the laws pertaining to Lashon Hara, or malicious gossip. His reputation as Halachist par-excellence rests on his work Mishnah Berurah, a running comentary to Shulchan Aruch, Section Orach Chaim. See Leo Jung ed., Jewish Leaders (1964) pp. 457-73. The consignor relates that his father received this letter as a school-prize while a student in the Yeshiva headed by Rabbi Jacobsohn in Roxbury. Apparently, the letter came to be torn as a fellow-student snatched it away in anger in not having been selected to be the winner of the class contest!