Letter from Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Roller, [1923]

Letter from Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Roller, [1923]

Letter with Torah thoughts written and signed by the Gaon Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Roller. Dated with a chronogram indicating 1928.

Halachic discussion regarding a non-Jewish woman who wished to convert in order to marry. Is it permitted to perform a conversion? At the start and end of the letter, the rabbi extols the receipient of the letter, Rabbi Shmuel Meir Hollander. 

Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Roller [1868-1946] was the Rabbi of  Târgu Neamţ for close to fifty years. He authored the Shu"t Beer Mordechai  and Shu"t HaRashvi"d. He was a descendant of Rabbi Naftali Katz and the Maharal of Prague and was a chassid of Rabbi Dovid Moshe Friedman of Chortkov and Rabbi Yitzchak Friedman of Bohush. He was noted for his holy manners - he studied Torah most of the day, wrapped in his prayer shawl and crowned by his Rabbein Tam tefilin. He studied kabala every Shabbat from midday through the crack of dawn. It is related that he once went to find a minyan during a pogrom, was attacked by a group of marauders and miraculously saved. He wrote his Barchi Nafshi to commemorate his salvation. He immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1946 and settled in Jerusalem. Rabbi Eliezer Zussia of Skulen said: "there is almost no other person like him in a few countries who is so great in Torah and good character." The "Roller" synagogue in Ashkelon and the "Be'er Chaim Mordechai" Talmud Torah of Vishnitz chassidim in Bnei Brak were established in his memory. He was an expert in freeing agunot, and after the Holocaust he freed the daughter of R' Meir Arik, the aguna Gittel. His short work, Kuntress Beer Chaim Mordechai was used after the Holocaust to free many situations of agunas.

The Rabbi's signature at the end of the letter is slightly cropped.

[1] letterhead with text on both its sides. 21x14 cm. Fold marks. Fine condition.