Teshuvoth Ohr Chadash [“Responsa on the Electric Light, Tramways, Automobiles, Telephones, Phonographs & Gramophones.”]

SLUTZKY, EPHRAIM ZALMAN HALEVI.

Dov Zionsohn

Vilna

1905

An early, thorough attempt to tackle Halachic questions brought on by modern inventions. Complete abstinence from electric appliances for the duration of the Sabbath and festivals is perhaps the most widely-known fact about Orthodox Jews today. However, when invented over a hundred years ago, novelties such as cars and telephones challenged traditional Jews as how to fit such technology within the Halachic framework, definitively allowing or prohibiting their use on a holy day. Among the early authorities to address such issues was R. Ephraim Zalman Slutsky (1842-1915?) of Mir, a Dayan in Vilna. In the present volume, over the course of four lengthy Teshuvoth, R. Slutzky addresses whether electric lights may be used for Sabbath Havdalah; if one may ride a train or car on Yom Tov; if one may use a telephone on Yom Tov; and if one may turn electric lights on and off over Yom Tov. Despite R. Slutzky’s work, many rabbis still did not reach a consensus regarding these topics. Only with R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s hugely influential ‘Me’orei Ha’esh’ (Jerusalem, 1935) did the Ashkenazic rabbinic community coalesce around mostly agreed-upon principles. Thus, the present work offers a fascinating early, maverick approach, whose conclusions do not precisely mirror today’s presumptions. Rabbi Slutzky published books on a broad array of rabbinic topics: Mishnah, on the Talmudic dictionary Aruch, on the Halachot Gedolot, on the halachic decisions of the Tosafot, and more. ATTACHED: Autographed Letter Signed by Ephraim Zalman Halevi Slutzky on official letterhead, with stamp. A recommendation for American immigrant Ya’akov Stolson that he serve as a prayer leader in New York, just as he had in Vilna. Slutzky’s book is attached with the letter as a gift to the recipient.