Letter from 1816-1886 Isidor Kalisch;August 01, 1854 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from 1816-1886 Isidor Kalisch;August 01, 1854

Author

Isidor Kalisch

Date Created

1 August 1854

Location(s)

Cleveland

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 2 page(s) on 2 sheet(s).

Letter

Type

Letter

Language(s)

English

Physical Characteristics

Unlined Paper

Manuscript

Is Part Of

Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Isaac Leeser Collection

content

German With the wish for your happiness, and that you may declare yourself my friend openly as you are in secret,
I. Kalisch.
Hebrew
Announcement
In order that no complaint be made against me and other rabbis that we objected to the Get which was given here in Cleveland, and lest it be said that we transgressed the Edict of the rabbis not to leave matters of divorce to gentiles, that is why I publicly announce that since the one who arranged the Get did not understand the nature of the laws on marriage and divorce, his actions and words are not to be considered, and with regard to this sort of Get there is no applicability of the law about spreading false rumors [See Maharik §36, and other legalists]
And the following is evidence that this man had no knowledge of the nature of divorce

He did not know that it was necessary to ask the man whether he had not vowed to his wife not to divorce her, in which case it is first necessary to free him from his oath, lest he be caught in the net of a false oath, as I have written in my first letter.
There was The court had become invalidated
Further proof is in the fact that the one who arranged the divorce had written in this magazine that he had found no law about names of new places, while, as a matter of fact, there are piles of such laws

If the matter had come before me, I would have investigated very closely, and asked scholars what the legal name of the place should be. This is what any sensible man would do, and not like this perverse and stupid fellow about whom it is said "and it happened when the judges judged"*, and about when the sages said that he is the kind that compares himself to Elazar ben Arach, as superior to everyone else.
These are the words of
Israel son of Simha Bunas Kalisch
Head of Court of Cleveland
(Ellul 1854)
* The reference is "each man did what seemed good in his eyes"

Identifier

LSKAP_NC-8

Date

1854-08-01