Fourteen letters, written by the renowned arbitrator Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Carlitz (1878-1953), known as the "Vision Man", were donated to the National Library.
The content of the letters, for which he was a student of Hazon Ish, Zvi Aryeh Yehuda, sheds light on a personal side in the writing of Hazon Ish.
Rabbi Dr. Zvi Aryeh Yehuda (1926-2014) was born in Jerusalem and was a close student of the Vision Man from 1941 until the early 1950s. He was ordained a rabbi in Israel, and later turned to academic studies and served as a lecturer in Jewish studies in the United States.
Some of the letters from the visionary Ish, Photo: Courtesy of the National Library
The letters reveal a lesser-known and lesser-known side of the visionary, Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Carlitz, one of the most prominent leaders of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in the Land of Israel. In one of the letters, Hazon Ish responded to Zvi Arieh Yehuda's decision to enlist in the army with these words: "I am also rich in love for others, and especially for a young man armed with talent and an understanding heart. "I will not be disconnected. When I see you in a sudden turn ... I had to restrain myself every day about the magnitude of the pain, and I could not let go of the grief."
Dr. Joel Finkelman, curator of the Haim and Hannah Salomon Jewish Collection at the National Library, explains the contribution of the letters revealed to the understanding of the great arbitrator's personality: "The emotional and human side of the great rabbi when he confesses paternal and loving feelings towards a young student, even when he expresses concern for the way the young person chooses to go."
The Yehuda family said: "The letters express the unique connection between the two personalities and the rare closeness between teacher and student. We invite the general public and the research community to read the letters and learn about the teacher, the student and the special connection between them."