"A Letter of Nachas" Regarding a Student of the Tirnoi Yeshiva
From the Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Shmuel David HaLevi Ungar
1927
A letter signed by the renowned Rabbi Shmuel David Ungar, Av Beis Din and Rosh Yeshiva of the prestigious Tirnoi Yeshiva, a foremost Torah giant of Slovakia before the Holocaust and father-in-law of the Klausenburg-Sanz Rebbe.
The letter was sent to the father of one of the yeshiva students, informing him of his son’s success in his studies:
"I wish to inform you that your son, may he be well, is learning diligently and conducting himself in the right path. If he continues in this way then we will, with Hashem’s help, derive much nachas from him."
The letter continues by addressing the situation of the poor students in the yeshiva and a request for his assistance in the great mitzvah of supporting them.
Rabbi Shmuel David HaLevi Ungar (1886-1944) led his community in Tirnoi, Slovakia for many decades, maintaining a famous yeshiva attended by thousands of students. His dedication to his students, both spiritually and materially, was boundless.
In 1931, he relocated to Nitra where he led his yeshiva until the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, the Nitra Yeshiva was the last one in occupied Europe to close its doors.
He conducted extensive rescue activities to save Jews during the Holocaust, together with his son-in-law Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl. His son-in-law through his second marriage was the Klausenburg-Sanz Rebbe, and the current Sanz Rebbe is his grandson.
Tirnoi, 1927. Size: 16.9 x 20.8 cm.
Condition: Good, fold marks. Original envelope included.
The student’s name and his father’s name are not mentioned in the letter. On the envelope, in a foreign language, it is written that the recipient is Mano Leichter from Szombathely. Based on this, one can surmise that the student is R’ Yosef David Leichter from Szombathely, who is mentioned in the subscribers’ pages of the sefer ‘Chazon Yeshaya’ (Verhel 1931) as one of the students of the Tirnoi Yeshiva.
