(The Lomzer Rov, author of Shu’t Divrei Malkiel, 1847-1910). Autograph Letter Signed written in Hebrew R. Mordechai Friedman.

TENENBAUM, MALKIEL TZVI

19th Ellul

Lomza, Poland

1907

Responsum answering a series of questions concerning transporting items on Shabbath, Eruv and whether a particular financial arrangement constitutes a charge of interest.

Rabbi Malkiel Zvi Tenenbaum was one of the leading poskim in Poland – and in all of the Russian Empire – in the decades before World War I. Along with other Gedolei Torah, he was summoned to attend the Rabbinic Commission in St. Petersburg in 1910, but passed away whilst on the journey. This letter sheds some light on the practices of meshivim. It is written by two hands. A few introductory sentences and the final 2/3 of the third page are written by R. Tenenbaum himself. The remaining 2+ pages are in a different hand and, in fact, correspond to the responsum published in Divrei Malkiel 5:242. At the beginning of the present letter, R. Tenenbaum writes, “I have ordered the copying of what I previously wrote to you.” That is, R. Tenenbaum had this section in a personal archive, from which it was copied by someone else into this letter. The remainder of this letter was written by R. Tenenbaum himself.