(1860-1930). Autograph Letter Signed written in Hebrew to Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik.

Silberberg, Chaim Ya’akov Naftali

15th Tammuz

Warsaw

1909

This letter is addressed to Rabbi Soloveitchik with the greatest superlatives as befits a Gadol HaDor. After apologizing for not being able to visit and ask the queries that he would have liked, Rabbi Silberberg describes the saintly and wise qualities of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, and how he comported himself with deep wisdom in the presence of aged Geonim.

Rabbi Silberberg, also known as R. Chaim Ya’akov Naftali Virshov, was the son of R. Avraham Binyamin Beinush Silberberg (1839-87), rabbi of Kotno and then Wieruszów. Rabbi Silberberg was a Dayan in Warsaw, the editor of several works by the Maharil Zunz, and the author of many original Torah works. Darkei Chaim was published posthumously (Peitrokov, 1931) and includes his ethical will, and Da’ath HaRabanim, a work against Zionism. R. Silberberg’s personal knowledge of Rabbi Sonnenfeld stemmed from an earlier period, when he served as the rabbinic assistant of R. Yehoshua Leib Diskin in Jerusalem. See M.M. Gerlitz & Y.M. Sofer, Mara De'ara Yisrael (Jerusalem, 1969) Vol. 1, p. 35.