Letter from Rabbi Menachem Greenwald, Av Beis Din of Sopron, Disciple of the Ksav Sofer
Edenburg, 1910
Rabbi Menachem Greenwald (1843-1930) was a beloved and outstanding disciple of the Ksav Sofer in Pressburg, where he studied alongside Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, who later said about him: "The companion of my youth… who was a faithful and dear friend to me." (Toras Chaim, Siman 120).
He married the daughter of Rabbi David Neumann Lackenbach, Av Beis Din of Pressburg, and a disciple of the Chasam Sofer. In 1873, he was appointed as the Av Beis Din of the Sopron community in western Hungary, near the Austrian border. (The city is referred to in German as Edenburg, as noted in the letter). He held this prestigious position for over fifty years until his passing in 1930. (See more about him in Chasam Sofer U’Talmidav, p. 516).
In the letter, written in Yiddish, Rabbi Menachem confirms that Mrs. Rivka Pollack donated a significant sum for Kaddish to be recited for her late husband, Rabbi Yitzchak Pollack, during the first year after his death and on the annual Yahrtzeit.
Letters from Rabbi Menachem Greenwald are rare. Most of his writings were lost, as the publisher of ‘Shu"t Nir L’Dovid Hachadashos’, in ‘Halacha LeMoshe’ (Bnei Brak, 1981), mentions in the introduction.
Edenburg (Sopron), 1910. Handwritten in its entirety and signed by Rabbi Menachem, in Yiddish.
Large letter: 21×33.9 cm.
Condition: Good.
