Letter from Israel Kalish? to Menacham Goldsmith;December 1852
- Title
- Letter from Israel Kalish? to Menacham Goldsmith;December 1852
- Author
- Israel Kalish?
- Contributor
- Menacham Goldsmith
- Date Created
- December 1852
- Format
- Letter. 3 page(s) on 3 sheet(s).
- Letter
- Type
- Letter
- Language(s)
- English
- Physical Characteristics
- Unlined Paper
- Typescript
- content
-
An Answer
To Menacham Goldsmith of the city of New York about his opinions in the matter of the "Get" here in Cleveland.
Motto
Rabbi Jeremiah said, "'He placed me in the darkness like the dead of the world' (Lamentations 3:6) This is the Babylonian Talmud (Syhhedrin 24;1)" And I say, "This is the Talmud of Menachem Goldsmith of New York".
In this magazine, in the issue of Heshvan, as well as in others, I have read letters of men who are of the type of those 3 about whom our sages said that a meeting with them bodes ill. The first of these is Halevi, whom I found deaf to my words, and he prides himself by saying that righteousness dwells with him. To him I wrote my letter in the "Asmonean" and the "Occident". The second one is Menachem Goldsmith of New York who joined with the former and has taken double of the other one's spirit, double meaning both folly and childishness. And because God has smitten them with blindness and deprived them of wisdom and human intelligence, they have divided themselves into three watches in this night of their folly. Thus I understand it as our sages said, that in the first watch the barking of a dog is heard, in the second the neighing of a donkey, and in the third the talk of a woman.
The sparks of pride and perversion of folly arouses within them and raises up a smoke of anger. They are very angry at me and my friend,— my friend dear to me as my soul, the Rabbi, the sharpwitted and the learned Rabbi Isaac Wise, who occupies the chair of the rabbinate in the city of Albany, the glorious pupil of the great light, Rabbi Samuel Landau.* may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, and of Rabbi Wolf son of ? ?. Leib son of Rabbi Ezekiel Glogau. Also upon that mighty man, the peerless and learned, full of good qualities, Simon Abraham, they poured out their wrath. They did this because we did not shut our mouth and keep quiet, even though we knew for certain that the "Get" arranged here
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2
by a certain man Levi, was invalid for a great many reasons, the roots of which go back to the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud and the other legislators, greater than the new laws of Menachem Goldsmith of New York about which I have never heard and never known until this day, and which have been hidden from every man of understanding. Indeed, legally one ought not to pay any attention to the silly words of such men, for why should we waste the days of our life which God has given us to study and to teach the Torah? But in order to show that we have not come mere-ly to criticize but to establish the truth upon its foundation, I shall do more than justice, and reply to all the opinions of Menachem Goldsmith which were printed in this publication in the month of Heshvan. I shall do as well as God will permit me.
Note:
The rest is a refutation, point by point, of Goldsmith's defense of that "Get". It is purely a legal argument, written in the same tone as above. It is signed Israel son of Simcha Binem Kalish, Rabbi of Cleveland, Kislev (December) 5613 1852.
Ab Rosh Beni Din
beg Landau rabbinical family ? ab 12 cent ago fool Shebollz Nodesh be ?. Glojau—rab. family.
Krotoschint. Kot?.
German Posen-part-talse? by German
1772. (Retd to Poland)—in 20th cent after war.
Place of report Talmud publication. (Palestinian) best (today Hebrew books. - Identifier
- LSKAP_NC-3
- Date
- 1852-12
Part of Letter from Israel Kalish? to Menacham Goldsmith;December 1852
Israel Kalish?, “Letter from Israel Kalish? to Menacham Goldsmith;December 1852”, 1852-12, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed October 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/69551