Letter from R. Mordechai Gimpel Jaffe Rabbi of Rozhinoy

Letter from R. Mordechai Gimpel Jaffe Rabbi of Rozhinoy
Letter (35 lines) handwritten and signed by R. Mordechai Gimpel Jaffe Rabbi of Rozhinoy (Ruzhany). [1878?].
An interesting familial letter addressed to his son R. Yaakov. His other sons, R. Eliyahu, R. Chizkiyah and R. Tzvi Hirsh Jaffe of Brisk, are also mentioned in the letter. The letter discusses commerce and loans within the family, and a proposed match between his granddaughter, daughter of R. Tzvi Hirsh Jaffe of Brisk, and a relative. He mentions the match negotiations which were led by a devious matchmaker: "…the entire matter from beginning to end was a deception, through the dishonest matchmaker from Pr[--]no, whom I thought to be my friend… this too was only to draw me into his net…".
R. Mordechai Gimpel Jaffe (1820-1892) was a leading Lithuanian Torah scholar in his generation – the times of the Netziv and R. Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor. He was a disciple of R. Yitzchak of Volozhin, who predicted that he would be amongst the foremost rabbis of the generation. He served as rabbi in Deretchin (Dziarečyn), and later in Rozhinoy (Lithuania, presently Belarus), a position he held for some 36 years, until his immigration to Eretz Israel in 1888. Upon his arrival in Eretz Israel, he settled in the newly established moshava of Yehud, where he founded a yeshiva of outstanding Torah scholars and became the spiritual-religious leader of the new settlement in Eretz Israel. In the 1889 Shemittah polemic, R. Mordechai Gimpel was amongst the leading opponents of the Heter Mechira (maintaining that since the Jewish people's exile from the Land was due to Shemittah desecration, the survival of the new settlement would depend on full observance of the commandment of Shemittah), and he supported the farmers in Ekron who steadfastly observed the Shemittah.
His son, recipient of this letter, was R. Yaakov Rabinowitz of Lutzin (Ludza; 1856-1919), a prominent activist in Lithuania, also renowned as an outstanding Torah scholar. He was a merchant, and managed the Jewish bank in Lutzin. He was one of the teachers of R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (his relative), who studied under him in his youth. R. Kook refers to him in his letters as "my master, teacher of my youth".
[1] leaf, written on both sides (35 autograph lines). 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Wear and tears. Damage to several words. Tape repair to text.