Machon Yerushalayim’s New Project
The great renaissance of Torah studies which we have been witnessing for the last four decades has been accompanied by an equally wondrous phenomenon. More than ever, Torah scholars have been engaged in preparing corrected editions of important rabbinic texts and publishing outstanding rabbinic books which had hitherto remained in manuscript, some of them dating from many centuries ago.
A leader in this field is Machon Yerushalayim, which was founded about 30 years ago. During this comparatively short period its various research institutes have published more than 500 volumes.
A short time ago I met with Rabbi Joseph Buxbaum, the very learned and dynamic director of Machon Yerushalayim. He told me in detail about the Machon’s latest projects, the first volumes of which should come off the press shortly.
One project is the publication of the novellae, responsa and other writings by Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan Spektor, Kovno’s famous rabbi who was the greatest Halakhic authority of his time.
“In the volume in memory of the late Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner, which Machon Yerushalayim published in 1984, we printed from manuscripts forty-four comparatively short responsa of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan,” Rabbi Buxbaum told me. “After I discussed one of these responsa with the late Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, he asked me whether there were more of such responsa by Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan extant. When I answered in the affirmative, he exclaimed excitedly: “One must collect and publish them. ‘ A short time before his death, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach reminded me of this conversation and asked me whether something had been done to collect and print the unpublished responsa of the Rav of Kovno. It was then that I decided to devote myself to this task.”
Rabbi Buxbaum also told me of a conversation he had had with Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, the architect and editor-in-chief of the Talmudic encyclopedia, a conversation he related to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach when he spoke with him about the responsa of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan.
Rabbi Zevin had written in one of his articles on Torah literature that the number of unpublished responsa of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan was greater than the number of those which had appeared in print. Rabbi Buxbaum asked Rabbi Zevin for the source of this information. “I have this information from Gedolei Yisrael who used to visit Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan, “Rabbi Zevin replied.
The forty-four responsa which were printed in the Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner Memorial Volume were all addressed to Rabbi Dov Aryeh Ritter of Rotterdam. They were discovered in Rabbi Ritter’s library which, many years ago, was transferred to the library of Jerusalem’s Yeshurun Synagogue. Rabbi Ritter had inserted the letters in his copies of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan’s printed books.
In the latest issue (Elul 5760) of Machon Yerushalayim’s periodical Moriah, which is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Simha Zissel Braude, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hevron in Jerusalem, and of his brother Rabbi Zvi Braude, head of the Beth Din of Petach Tikva, who both died last year, Rabbi Buxbaum published 13 responsa and decisions which Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan had sent to Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam. Rabbi Amsterdam, who was one of the outstanding disciples of Rabbi Israel Salanter, served as rabbi in Helsingfors, Finland as well as in other places and later settled in Jerusalem. He presented the responsa he received from R. Yitzhak Elhanan to Rabbi Abraham Braude, (father of Rabbi Simcha Zissel and Zvi), who was a son-in-law of Rabbi Yizhak Elchanan’s younger brother, Yaakov David.
Rabbi Buxbaum is in possession of more responsa that Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan sent to Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, as well as of responsa Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan sent to Rabbi Yitzchak Blaser, also a famous disciple of Rabbi Israel Salanter, who served as rabbi in Petersburg.
Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan published several larger books during his life: Responsa Be’er Yitzhak and Ein Yitzhak (2 vols.), and Nahal Yitzhak (2 vols.), novellae on Hoshen Mishpat.
Machon Yerushalayim plans to publish ten volumes of his collected writings. They include four volumes of responsa (reprints of Be’er Yitzhak and Ein Yitzhak with notes as well as corrections based on manuscripts, and special sections containing comments by Gedolei Yisrael selected from their published writings or copied from observations they wrote on the margins of their copies of Rabbi Yitzhak Elchonon’s books. The comments on Ein Yitzhak include those which the recently departed Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, famous Rosh Yeshiva of Telz had published in the New York journal Talpiot), two volumes of of Nahal Yitzhak (reprinted with additions from Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan’s personal copy); two volumes of novellae on the Talmud, the Tura and the Shulhan Arukh (all from manuscripts); one volume of responsa and decisions (not included in Be’er Yitzhak and Ein Yitzhak; (and one volume of letters (including both published and unpublished material). This volume, the last, will also feature a biography of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan.
Yeshiva Rabbenu Yitzhak Elhanan of New Yok is participating in this project.
The first two volumes are scheduled to appear on the 21st of Adar, the 105th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Elhanan. The first volume will carry a preface by Rabbi Dr. Nahum Lamm head of Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzhak Elhanan, and an introduction by Rabbi Joseph Buxbaum.
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 2, 2001