Letter by Rebbetzin Rasha Leah Karelitz  - Kosava, 1933

A letter (in Yiddish) handwritten and ...

Letter by Rebbetzin Rasha Leah Karelitz  - Kosava, 1933

A letter (in Yiddish) handwritten and signed by Rebbetzin "Rasha Karelitz". Kosava,

The letter was written to her children

Rebbetzin Rasha-Leah Karelitz (ca. 1854-1940), daughter of R. Shaul Katzenelbogen, Rabbi of Kosava and Kobryn. In 1874, she married R. Shemarya Yosef Karelitz (1852-1916), who in 1882 succeeded his father-in-law as Rabbi of Kosava (near Grodno) after the latter progressed to the Kobryn rabbinate. She was celebrated for her piety and modesty and merited seeing all her nine sons and sons-in-law become famed Torah scholars and G-d fearing individuals. Among them: R. Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, author of the Chazon Ish; R. Meir Karelitz, Rabbi of Lachowicze and one of the heads of Mo'etzet Gedolei HaTorah; R. Abba Swiatycki, Rabbi of Kosava and Tykocin (Tiktin); and Rabbi Ya'akov Yisrael Kanievsky, author of Kehillot Ya'akov (the Steipler). Once, the Chafetz Chaim asked her how she merited such pious children to which she responded: Perhaps because I conducted myself with excessive modesty and the beams of my home never saw the hairs of my head. Reputedly, she fell ill soon after her marriage and the doctors warned her that giving birth may risk her life. Her father, R. Shaul, suggested that his son-in-law divorce her to enable him to have children but Rebbetzin Rasha-Leah heroically decided to bear children saying that G-d created her for this purpose and He will have mercy