A lengthy letter with Divrei Torah from the Gaon Rabbi Raphael Gradenwitz, Dayan in Rawitsch, to his student "the distinguished and outstanding young scholar, sharp and perceptive, the honorable Zalman, son of the eminent Rabbi Leib Brann" in Lissa.
At the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Raphael guides him in the correct methods of study and continues with a pilpul on the subject of a Kidushin using a loan.
Rawicz, Friday, Erev Shabbat, 13th of Tammuz, 1831.
The Gaon Rabbi Raphael Gradenwitz was a dayan in the city of Rawicz (Rawitsch) in the Poznań region. He was born in 1799 to Rabbi Aharon, who was a Maggid in Rawicz, and the grandson of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, son of Rabbi Yosef, who served as the rabbi of Rawicz 1755–1792. Their family name, "Gradenwitz, " means "straight intellect, " and indeed, on the tombstone of one family member in the city, it is inscribed "a man of straight intellect."
Rabbi Raphael is mentioned in documents from 1846 and in an approbation from 1847 on the sefer Afikey Yehuda (Lemberg, 1863). He passed away in 1857. Rabbi Raphael authored seforim that remained in manuscript form, held by a grandson named Raphael. This grandson lived in Berlin and later emigrated to London, but since his death, the whereabouts of the manuscripts are unknown (Pozner, To the History of the Community of Rawicz, Jerusalem, 1962, p. 32). Rabbi Raphael’s son, Rabbi Menachem Yosef, who was ordained as a rabbi, also lived in Rawicz and passed away in 1913 (ibid., pp. 32–33).
Rabbi Zalman Brann was born in Rawicz to his father, Rabbi Leib, in 1814. From 1828–1833, he studied in the Yeshiva of Lissa. From 1839, he served as a teacher and Maggid in Rawicz. In 1842, he became the Av Beit Din of Pleszew (Pleschen), in 1845 a dayan in Rawicz, and from 1853, the Av Beit Din of Piła (Schneidemühl), until his passing in 1903.
